Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S., late Regius Professor of ...

" The loss sustained by the death of [this great Naturalist] was aggravated to

those who knew him, by the consideration of how much of his knowledge had

perished with himself, and, notwithstanding all that he had written, how much

of the light collected by a life of experience and observation was now com-

pletely extinguished. It is, indeed, melancholy to reflect, that with all who make

proficiency in the sciences, founded on nice and delicate observation, something

of this sort must invariably happen. The experienced eye, the power of perceiv-

ing the minute differences and fine analogies which discriminate or unite the

objects of science, and the readiness of comparing new phenomena with others

already treasured up in the mind, these are accomplishments which no rules can

teach, and no precepts can put us in possession of. This is a portion of know-

ledge which every man must acquire for himself, and which nobody can leave as

an inheritance to his successor. It seems, indeed, as if Nature had in this in

stance admitted an exception to the rule, by which she has ordained the perpetual

accumulation of knowledge among civilized men, and had destined a considerable

portion of science continually to grow up and perish with the individual.”

—

Play-

fair's Biographical account of Dr. Hutton, Works, vol. iv. p. 33.

FTnVLtSHT.D 11Y MAlTAILLAN & C LON! OK M CAMU1U1 K

MEMOIR OF

EDWARD FORBES, F.R.S.

LATE REGIUS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

&C

BY GEORGE WILSON, M.D., F.R.S.E.

LATE REGIUS PROFESSOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, AND

DIRECTOR OF THE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND,

AND

ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, E.R.S.E., F.G.S.

OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

MACMILLAN AND CO.

C-ambribgt anb ^onboir.

EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS, EDINBURGH.1861.

[The Right, of Translation is reserved .]

EDINBURGH I T. CONSTABLE,

TIUNTER TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.

4

PREFACE.

This Memoir was begun by tlie late Dr. Wilson

towards tlie close of 1854,very soon after Professor

Forbes’s death. He made a considerable collection of

materials, in the form of letters, note-books, and other

papers. The weakness of his health, however, together

with the constant demands upon his time and labour,

greatly hindered his progress, so that he had only

advanced to the close of the sixth chapter when, in

November 1859,he was seized with the illness which

rapidly carried him to the grave. These six chapters

were never revised by him;

nor has it been thought

expedient to make any change upon them—they are

printed as they came from his pen. He left no notes

or outline of the work beyond the point where his

manuscript ended, and thus the greater part of the

Memoir remained still to be written.

Having for many years enjoyed the privilege—never

to be forgotten— of Dr. Wilson’s intimate friendship,

the task of continuing and completing his biography

of the great naturalist was, in the spring of 1860,in-

VI PREFACE.

trusted to me. The duties of a member of the Geo-

logical Survey are little favourable to continuous literary

work. Hence the Memoir has proceeded slowly, at

broken and uncertain intervals, amid many changes of

abode, and at a distance from libraries and books of

reference. A year has thus passed away, and only now,

after the lapse of so long a period since the death of

Professor Forbes, is this imperfect record of his life

completed.

To the numerous friends who, in addition to the

papers and information supplied by the family, have

furnished the materials of the following pages, every

acknowledgment is due : especially to Mr. Bobert Pat-

terson of Belfast, who lent an ample collection of letters

to the late Mr. William Thompson, Captain Graves, and

himself;to Professor Eamsay, who supplied many in-

cidents relating to Forbes’s connexion with the Geolo-

gical Survey;and to Mr. J. Beete Jukes, whose assistance

throughout has been of the most essential service. Sir

Eoderick Murchison, Principal Campbell of Aberdeen,

Professors Bennett and Balfour of Edinburgh, Mr.

Leonard Horner, Dr. Percy, Dr. Day, Mr. Trenham

Peeks, Mr. Bowerbank, Mr. Bristow, Mr. Baily, and

others, have kindly supplied letters and information.

The tail-pieces scattered through the volume have

been selected from a large collection of the rough pen-

and-ink sketches with which, in his leisure moments,

Forbes’s pen was ever busy, some of the best having been

PREFACE. Vll

furnished by Mr. Bowerbank. They are introduced, for

the most part, without reference to the text—a mode

of illustration to which Forbes himself was partial, and

which was adopted by him in his History of British

Starfishes.

Among his papers was found a small octavo note-

book, in which he recorded his writings, literary and

scientific, from 1831 up to the month before his death.

Tins list—itself incomplete—has been used as the basis

of that given in the Appendix to this volume. Of the

numerous articles and critiques which he wrote for

periodicals, a large number could with difficulty be

recovered. With a few exceptions, only those are given

in the Appendix which he regarded as worthy of being

chronicled in his own list.

ARCHD- GEIKIE.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The Isle of Man, ..... •

PAGE

1

CHAPTER IT.

Infancy—Childhood—Youth,.... • 37

CHAPTER III.

False start as an Artist—First Residence in London, . 71

CHAPTER IV.

Academic Student Life in Edinburgh, •

/

87

CHAPTER V.

A Year of Student Life in Edinburgh, • 136

CHAPTER VI.

Abandonment of Medicine as a Profession—Adoption of

History as a permanent Vocation,

Natural

165

CHAPTER VII.

Student Clubs,...... , # 188

CHAPTER VIII.

Vacation Rambles, ..... . # 203

CHAPTER IX.

His First Years as a professed Naturalist, . 225

b

X CONTENTS.

CHATTER X.PACK

The ^Eoean Sea, ....... 274

CPIAFTER XL

Life in London, as Curator of tiie Geological Society, and Pro-

fessor of Botany in King’s College, .... 322

CHAPTER XII.

The Geological Survey, . . . . . .376

CHAPTER XIII.

The Geological Survey continued

—

His Marriage, . . . 437

CHAPTER XIV.

The Geological Survey and the School of Mines, . . . 485

CHAPTER XV.

The Chair of Natural History at Edinburgh, . . . 535

Appendix, ........ 575

Index, 585

MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES.

CHAPTER I.

THE ISLE OF MAN.

In the centre of the Irish Sea, midway between the

shores of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, lies

that diminutive continent which, as if it were an epitome

of the whole world, bears the title of the Isle of Man.

On the chart it looks like one of the pieces of a child’s

puzzle-map which has strayed to a distance from the

adjacent shores. It can be fitted, however, into none of

them, and geologists tell us that it is in its true place,

and represents one of the few surviving portions of a

tract of land which once united the British Islands, but

has long since left only fragments above the waves .

1

i“ We know,” says Edward Forbes,

“that the Irish Sea is scooped out of

the elevated bed of the sea of the glacial

epoch, masses of which, of great extent

and thickness, we find bounding its sides

in England, the Isle of Man, and, still

more conspicuously, in Ireland, and that

on the great Pleistocene plain, lived the

(Jervus Megaceros."— (The Geological Re-

lations of the existing Fauna and Flora

3 $

of the British Isles, by Edward Forbes,

Mem. of Geol. Sum. vol. i. 1846, p. 844.)

There was thus a “ land of passage” occu-

pying the Irish Sea and making England

and Ireland one. Over this bridgeway the

great elk, now extinct (as well as other

creatures), passed and repassed, and its

bones are now found alike in Ireland

and the Isle of Man.

o MEMOIR OF CHAP. I.

They have spared, indeed, little of the fertile plains

which once filled the Irish sea, for the Isle of Man is

scarcely more than thirty miles long, and twelve miles

broad, and the number of its inhabitants, at any one

time, has probably never exceeded fifty thousand .

1 Yet

for centuries it was a kingdom with a king to itself, a

council, a jury-parliament, a Lex Scripta, administered

by oligarchs who were at once lawgivers, judges, and

magistrates, a peculiar ecclesiastical polity, and a people

acknowledging singular customs, and so loving their ownways, that they resisted to the last even partial amalga-

mation with Great Britain, and always called their birth-

place The Island, as if it had the pre-eminence among

the islands of the sea.

In this tiny kingdom Edward Forbes was born early

in the present century, and he spent, consecutively, the

first sixteen years, or altogether more than a third of his

mortal life, within its shores.

The peculiarities of his sea-cradle exerted a marked

influence over the development of his character. They

largely determined the special channel in which his

genius ultimately sought its fullest flow. Eminently

catholic, moreover, though he was in all his manifesta-

tions and sympathies, he displayed, withal, an insular

quaintness of maimer and independence of character to

the end of his days. He suffered also from the compara-

tively limited means of education which, in his youth,

the Isle of Man offered to its inhabitants.

1 Historical and Statistical Account of Joseph George Camming, 1848, p. 283.

the Isle of Man, etc., by Joseph Train, Both works will be repeatedly referred

1845, vol. ii. p. 383; and The Isle of to in the sequel as Train’s Isle of Man,

Man ; its History— Physical, Ecclesias- and Cumming’s Isle of Man.

tical, Civil, and Legendary, by the Rev.

CHAP. I. EDWARD FORBES.

A preliminary glance, accordingly, at the history and

characteristics of that curious island, will enable us, be-

fore entering into the details of his personal career, to

form an unbiassed judgment as to the influence for good

or evil which its peculiarities exerted upon Edward

Forbes.

It is impossible to approach the study of the Isle of

Man, without encountering two somewhat formidable

barriers to a better acquaintance with it;

the one, a

vexed discussion among the etymologists as to the origin

and meaning of its name;the other, a not less troubled

dispute among the heralds as to the significance of its

coat of arms. Both name and arms are singular, and

easily tempt to fanciful interpretations;

nor was the

subject of my memoir behind his countrymen in specu-

lating on both.

The interpretation of the name of Man, of which

Edward Forbes, I think, would most have approved, is

that of the old writer Gildas, who tells us that “ The Isle

of Man is seated in the navel of the sea, as it were in the

veiy midst of all that the kings of Great Britain do com-

mand, even as the heart of man is seated in the midst of

his body. The comparison will hold very fitly, for the

heart of man is compassed in a bag of water, called

the 'pericardium,

and therefore the heart of manmay truly be called the Isle of Man.” 1 On this in-

terpretation no philologist could be expected to look

with any favour.

Mr. Train tells us that the inhabitants “call their island

‘ Maimin’ ‘In’ being an old word for ‘ island\

there-1 Quoted by Train. Historical Account, vol. i. p. 39.

4 MEMOIR OF CHAP. I.

fore, Meadhon-in (pronounced ‘ Mann in’), signifies lite-

rally, ‘ The middle island/ May this not be the true

derivation of the name V ’ 1

The statute-book of the island gives another meaning

or origin to the word. “ Mannanan-Beg-Mac-y-Leirr, the

first person who held Man, was the ruler thereof, and

after whom the land was named, reigned many years,

and was a paynim. He kept the land under mist by his

necromancy/’ 2

According to another authority, Manninan was an

ancient Irish name for Neptune, and Man may have

been applied to the island “ as the supposed residence

of this god.”3

Bishop Wilson thought the “ Isle of Man very pro-

bably had the name it goes by now from the Saxon word‘ mang,’ among, as lying almost at an equal distance be-

tween the kingdoms of England, Scotland, Ireland, and

Wales;” but no etymologist, I imagine, will for a moment

sanction this derivation. Mr. Cumming refers Man to

the ancient British or Cymric word “ Mon,” signifying

isolated; or, to another term in the same language,

“ Maen,” “ a pile of stones or rocks.”i

Which one, if any, of those derivations is the true

one, I shall not attempt to decide. It is worth while,

however, to notice, that the word Man yields the pecu-

liar adjective Manx, e.c/., Manxman, a native of Man :

and that the Latin term Mona, by which the Roman

historians distinguished Man, as well as Anglesey, yields

Monensis, applied, by the subject of this memoir, to his

1 Op. et loc. tit.3 Quiggin’s Guide through the Isle of

Man. 5th Ed. 1856, p. 1.

4 History. Appendix A. p. 256.= ibid. Hid.

CHAP. I. EDWARD FORBES. 0

Catalogue of the Mollusea of the Irish Sea

—

Malaco-O

logia Monensis.

The singular armorial bearings of the island, or rather

the interpretations put upon them, are still more inter-

esting for us than those connected with its name, as

illustrating the determination of the Manxman to be a

Manxman, and not a Briton. Even so late as 1857, the

Rev. J. G. Gumming (who, however, is Manx only by

adoption) writes of his adopted country, “that though

in the midst of the British isles, it is in point of law no

part of them

;

1 that though a possession of the British

Crown, it is not ruled by the British Parliament;that

though its people have the rights of British subjects, it

is no part of England, is not governed by the laws of

England, and belongs not to England by colonization or

by conquest.”2

The ancient kings of Man of the Norwegian race, had

for their arms a ship, with the motto, “ Rex Mannise et

Insularum,” an excellent device for the shield of a sea-

king- but after the Scottish conquest (a. d. 1270), the

present well-known heraldic symbols were introduced.

They consist of “ three armed legs, proper, conjoined

in fess at the upper part of the thigh, flexed in tri-

angle, garnished and spurred topaz, with the motto,

‘ Quocunque jeceris stabit ’ (whichever way you shall

have thrown it, it will stand), surrounding it in a

garter.”3

1 Nevertheless, Mr. Walter Cooper 2 1 The Story of Rushen Castle. Iu-Dendy has not been afraid to include it troductory Notice, p. vi.

in the objects discussed in his pleasant

and gracefully illustrated volume— 3 Train’s Isle of Man, vol. i. p. 70.

The Beautiful Islets of Great Britain. Cumming’s Isle of Man, p. 261.

1857.


The three legs are in themselves innocent enough, and

perhaps meant no more originally than they did in the

ancient shield of Sicily, where they were understood to

symbolize the triangular shape of the island. Man is,

in a mathematical sense, less perfectly triangular than

Sicily, but facing three kingdoms in as many direc-

tions, it is geographically and politically a more perfect

triangle. It is possible, also, as Mr. Dendy suggests,

that the armorial device had originally some connexion

with the legend of a three-legged wizard, who, by his

spells, covered the island with mists;but if so, that

connexion is now forgotten;

1 however we interpret it,

it plainly refers to an essential not an accidental attri

bute of the island.

Ingenious Manx commentators draw our attention to

the fact, that however you turn the shield the attitude

of the legs remains the same, and that no transposition

of the words of the Latin motto alters its meaning.

They differ considerably in the interpretation which

they put on the words and the symbol, but all agree hi

finding in them an expression, on the part of Manx-

land, of self-reliance, independence, and neutrality. Ac-

cording to one reading, the three spurred feet and

armed heels, defy simultaneously England, Scotland, and

Ireland. According to another, one limb is bent, as if

kneeling in allegiance to one of these countries, and

the other two are upraised in defiance of the remainder.

An English writer discovers that the kneeling limb is

bent towards England, and the recalcitrating toe and

heel turned towards Scotland and Ireland,

2forgetting

1 Beautiful Islets of Great Britain, p. 84. - Ibid. p. 79.

CIIAP. I. EDWARD FORBES. i

that it was under a Scottish king, Alexander m., the

symbol was introduced, and that one of its peculiar

virtues is, to have the same significance in whatever

direction it is turned.

The intelligent editor of Quiggin s Guide-Book to the

Isle of Man,interprets more modestly and somewhat

differently. “ The three legs refer to the relative situa-

tion of the island with respect to the neighbouring

nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland, previous to

their union, since which the symbol entirely loses its

propriety, and has become obsolete and unmeaning. . . .

The legs are armed, and while in whatever position they

are placed, two of them fall into the attitude of supplica-

tion, the third, being upwards and behind, appears to be

kicking at the assailant against whom the other two are

imploring protection. The vis of the symbol is, that if

England should seek to oppress the island, it would soon

engage Ireland or Scotland to afford protection;and if

either of these two should assail it, that it would hasten

to call England to its defence."

1 Many are content to

read the motto almost literally, and to understand it as

imputing to the Isle of Man, historically personified, a

cat-like aptitude when knocked about, for alighting on'

its feet,2

This, certainly, is the verdict of history on the

fortunes of Man, which have thriven in spite, and often

because of the troubles of its neighbours; and though

the herald of the thirteenth century who devised the three-

legged ensign did not formally prophesy as much, we are

probably not mistaken in thinking that he hid some such

Qu *So’ n s Guide-Book to the Isle of - Train’s Isle of Man, vol. ii. p. 81.Man, p. 32. Cumming’s Isle of Man, vol. ii. p. 261.

8 MEMOm OF CHAP. I.

meaning under his significant symbol At all events, it

is full of meaning to Manxmen of the present day. To

none was it more expressive than to Edward Forbes.

He had a peculiar fancy, as we shall afterwards find, for

all triangular arrangements. The three-legged Manxsymbol is continually repeated in his note-books, and all

familiar with his History of British Star-Fishes will

remember how prominently it figures in the exquisite

vignette on the title-page of that work.

The people who thus strongly assert then insular in-

dividuality, if regarded as distinctively and historically

Manx, are a Celtic race, speaking a dialect of the Erse,

and more akin to the Irish than to the Scottish or Welsh

Celts. The mother of Edward Forbes was of an old

Manx family, and from her he inherited lands in the

island, so that his patriotism as a Manxman was rooted

in the soil. A glance at the fortunes of his insular fore-

fathers will prepare us for some of the influences which

moulded his character.

The history of Manxland begins in the usual mythical

way, and recedes into a region of clouds, where we need

not follow it. From this dim pre-historic dawn, through

which the shadowy figures of lost races of men and mys-

tical Druids questionably hover, the Isle of Man emerges

in the end of the third century, at which period, occu

pied as it was by a people who had no written annals or

literature of any kind, it was conquered by an ancient

Scot, called Brule, “ who divided the land between him-

self and his followers, and the ‘ original contract' became

the foundation of then laws.” 1 To Brule succeeded a

1 Train’s Isle of Man, vol. ii. p. 186.


dynasty of Welsh princes, who reigned as kings for

nearly four centuries, and added to the Manx statute-

book not a few laws, which remained in force long after

the lawgivers had been driven from the island. They

were dethroned by Norwegian princes, who held Man

for several generations, but were quietly dispossessed hi

the early part of the tenth century by Orree or Gorree,

a Scandinavian—probably Danish—Sea Dover, in whose

family the sovereignty remained for more than a hun-

dred years. Orree (or Orry) is the most famous of the

kings of Man. He holds the same place in a patriotic

Manxman s heart that Alfred does in that of an Eno-

lishman, or Bruce in that of a Scotchman. He owes

this veneration to the laws he gave his people. Theyrefer to him the territorial divisions of the island

which still exist, the establishment of the Taxioxi (a

jury parliament, now called the House of Keys), andthe reduction, for the first time, of the laws of Man to

writing.

In the eleventh century, the descendants of Orry weresupplanted by Goddard Crovan, an Icelandic prince,

whose family ruled hi Man, with the title of kings, for

nearly two hundred years. These princes were feuda-

tories of the Norwegian Crown, and when the ninth andlast of them died in the middle of the thirteenth century,the Isle of Man was ceded by Norway to the King ofScotland.

The people, who were not consulted in this transfer,

gained nothing by the transaction. For nearly a hun-dred and fifty years, the island was continually changingmasters at very short intervals. The Scottish kino-

MEMOIR OF CHAP. I.

* 10

Alexander in., held it for a time; then Edward i. of Eng-

land took possession of it, but resigned it before long to

John Baliol. It soon reverted to the Crown of England,

but was speedily restored to Scotland by Robert the

Bruce, and in the confusion inseparable from all these

changes, it was plundered by a band of Irish freebooters

under Richard de Mandeville, who swept over it in

1316, and after spending a month in stripping the island

of everything valuable, made off with their plunder.

Within some twenty years the island was again in pos-

session of the English, and in 1344, Edward hi. raised

William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, to the throne of

Man. In 1393, this Earl sold the island to Sir William*

Scroop, the King’s chamberlain, afterwards Earl of Wilt-

shire, “ with the title of king, and the right of being

crowned with a golden crown.” The golden crown,

however, brought no blessing to the Earl’s brows. In

1399, he was beheaded for treason, and Henry iv. trans-

ferred the Isle of Man to Henry Percy, Earl of Nor-

thumberland. Percy also was soon attainted for treason,

and though allowed to keep his head, was deprived of

the island, which the king conferred upon Sir John

Stanley. This brings us to the year 1406, when the

modern history of the Isle of Man may be regarded as

beginning.

The house of Stanley, on which, in a later generation,

the earldom of Derby was conferred, ruled the island for

more than three centuries, with the exception of a brief

interregnum (1652-1660) during the Commonwealth,

when Lord Fairfax held its sovereignty. For the first

century of their rule, the Stanleys reigned as kings, but

CHAP. I. EDWARD FORBES. 11.

in 1505, Thomas, grandson of the first earl, “succeeded

to the title of Earl of Derby and King of Man;but pre-

ferring, as is stated by a subsequent earl in a letter to

his son, ‘ to be a great lord rather than a petty king, he

relinquished the royal designation, and thereafter assumed

only the title of Lord of Man.” 1 In 1736, James, the

tenth earl, and thirteenth in the Manx dynasty, died

without surviving issue, and the Lordship of Man passed

by the female line to James Murray, second Duke of

Athol, in right of his grandmother, Lady Amelia Sophia

Stanley, daughter of James, the great Earl of Derby,

who was beheaded by the Parliamentary forces, in 1651,

for his services to the Stuarts.

The Dukes of Athol held the lordship of Man through

three generations extending nearly over a century; but

even before them accession the island had become such a

thorn in the side of Great Britain, as a nest of smugglers

and questionable refugees, that she had resolved to take

it into her own hands. A change of dynasty made this

more easy, and the Dukes of Athol finding that nothing

remained for them but to resign their lordship with as

good a grace, and on as favourable terms as possible,

reluctantly sold their birthright;and the Isle of Man,

partially ceded to England in 1765, passed in 1829

under the direct rule of the British Crown.

The peculiar laws of the island, however, were scarcely

interfered with. At present “ the Civil Government of

the Isle of Man is vested in three estates—the Queenin Council, the Governor and Council, and the House of

Keys. These last two estates together constitute a Court

1 Train’s Isle of Man, vol. i. p. 367.

• 12 MEMOIR OE CHAP. I.

of Tynwald;and the concurrence of the three is essen-

tial to every legislative act.”1

It is necessary here to enter a little more particularly

into the later history of the island.

The Isle of Man steadily advanced in prosperity under

the House of Stanley, and whilst civil war was desolat-

ing the neighbouring countries, knew almost uninter-

rupted peace ;but in the end this peace proved fatal to

its independence. After the Restoration of Charles n.

down to the close of the seventeenth century, it was little-

interfered with by Great Britain. England, Scotland,

and Ireland, were alike distracted with revolutions and

rebellions, and left the Manxmen to their own guidance.

For a season the Isle of Man was practically a republic.

The eighth Earl of Derby (1660-1672) had simulta

neously lost the favour of his subjects and his king by

the execution of William Christian (1663),2 and Tynwald

Courts were held without the presence or sanction of the

Lord Superior. In consequence of this state of matters

the Isle of Man became again a centre of attraction to

sea-rovers, but instead of Norse pirates it now welcomed

French and Dutch smugglers. The native Manxmen

were not originally to blame for the bad repute into

which these modern buccaneers brought their island. As

early as 1670, a company of adventurers from Liverpool

settled at Douglas for the avowed purpose of carrying on

a contraband trade with the surrounding shores;

3but

1 Quiggin’s Guide to the Isle of Man,

P . 77.

2 One of the posthumous heroes of

Sir Walter Scott’s Peveril of the Peak.

He is referred to more specially in the

sequel.

3 Train, from whom this statement is

taken (Isle of Man, vol. ii. p. 306), re-

fers to an older historian of the island,

Bullock, and adds, "such advantages

were held out by these illicit traffickers,

as they were then called, to merchants

CIIAP. I. EDWARD FORBES. 13 •

tliey soon tempted the Manx people to abet them, and

before long the great body of the islanders abandoned

their pastoral pursuits and fisheries to become carriers of

illicit goods. That they should have done so is not very

surprising. They could justify their smuggling transac-

tions by better arguments than most communities can.

They were not only as slow as the less conscientious mass

of mankind have always been to acknowledge that smug-

gling is both a crime and a sin, and as much disposed as

that majority always is, to hold with the Spartans, that

at the utmost it becomes a crime only if discovered ; but

they could plead that they broke no Manx law by smug-

gling, and that they enriched, instead of impoverishing,

the insular treasury by their illicit traffic. For its exist-

ence, accordingly, the English and Scottish Lords of

Man, including, however, their constitutional Manx ad

visers, must bear the chief blame.

The eighth Earl of Derby, under whose lordship of

Man systematic smuggling began, died before it had ac

quired a sure footing in the island, and was probably but

slightly responsible for its encouragement. His son and

successor, the ninth Earl(1672 -1702 ), sanctioned, in

1696,the passage of a Tynwald act permitting all and

every person and persons of any kingdom or nation,

whose prince is at peace with the Crown of England, to

cnJ °}3 as residents of the Isle of Man, the same privilege

as subjects of England had enjoyed. It would be un-

charitable to impute unworthy motives to the enactors of

engaged in the foreign trade, that many goes.” In this way the English dutiesships laden with the produce of the East were evaded, and the goods lightly taxedand West Indies, touched at the island by the Manx authorities, were thenand met with a ready sale for their car- smuggled into Great Britain.


this law, which, in truth, was but the tardy abrogation

of a restriction to free intercourse with the island, im-

posed at a time when great jealousy of Scotland prevailed.

In itself both just and politic, this enactment secured an

asylum for the Protestant refugees from Ireland, and a

hiding-place for the Jacobite wanderers on whose heads a

price was set in Scotland;

x but it also tempted wealthy

men from all the surrounding shores to carry their capital

to the Isle of Man, and invest it in the profitable iniquity

of smuggling. Many capitalists, accordingly, took up

their residence in the island, and provided remunerative

employment for its humbler inhabitants. How welcome

moneyed men were, may best be inferred from the fact

that in 1702, Lord Derby, the tenth Earl and last Lord

of Man of the House of Stanley, farmed the revenue of

the island to a merchant in Liverpool, for £1000 per

annum;

2 and in 1710 advanced to his subjects the loan

of a hundred pounds,3 which, with his approval, they ex-

pended in a vain attempt to prevent their fiscal laws

being altered by the English Parliament. The smallness

of the loan, and the use to which it was put are equally

significant, as showing the poverty of both lord and

people, and their unanimity in regarding smuggling as

its cure. They showed this by deeds even more than by

words. The wilder spirits became sailors under skilful

and daring commanders, chiefly foreigners, who despised

alike the terrors of the law and the tempest, and, quite

ready to measure their strength with the king’s cruisers,

i David Forbes, the great-grandfather described more fully in the succeeding

of the subject of this Memoir, was one chapter,

of the many adherents of the Stuarts

who, after 1745, profited by the enact- 2 Train’s Isle of Man, vol. i. p. ‘244.

ment under notice to settle in Man, as 3 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 308.

CHAP. I. EDWARD FORBES. 1 5

repeated the feats of the ancient Vikings on the shores

of Man. 1 The less adventurous natives of humble rank

carried contraband goods in their wherries to the adja-

cent shores, and attended the landings of the vessels;

whilst the wealthier islanders (in most cases, Manxmen

only by adoption) erected ample subterraneous cellars

as secret storehouses for then’ unlawful merchandise.

With the exception, accordingly, of an upright protesting

minority, eloquently represented by good Bishop Wilson

(1697-1755), the Isle of Man exhibited the singular

spectacle of an entire community deliberately engaged

in “ the smuggling Trade,” as one of themselves naively

called it. So conducive was it to the pecuniary interests

of Manxland, and so correspondingly injurious to those

of Great Britain, that early in the eighteenth century

the annual loss to the revenue of the imperial kingdom

amounted, on the lowest estimate, to several hundred

thousand pounds, and many rated it at half a million

sterling.2 Such a state of matters could not be tolerated

by the British Crown. One of her dependencies had

been openly converted into a nest of plunderers who

intercepted her revenues, defrauded her honest mer-

chants, and demoralized her people. Nor, as compensa-

tion for this, could it be shown that the native Manxmenwere real or permanent gainers by their illicit traffic.

All authorities agree in affirming that by far the larger

share of its profits fell into the hands of strangers.3In

1726, accordingly, an Act of Parliament was passed,

1 The Dirk Hatteraik of Scott’s Guy Trish Sea. Not less daring were theMannering is a picture from life of one French, Irish, and Welsh buccaneers,of the Dutch smugglers who long held 2 Train’s Isle of Man, vol. ii. p. 319.his own against desperate odds in the s find. p. 308.

16 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. I.

authorizing, as it was phrased, the Earl of Derby to dis

pose of his Manx royalty and revenue, and empowering

the Lords of the Treasury to purchase them from him.

The Earl, however, had no wish to sell his birthright, and

succeeded in putting obstacles in the way of the sale, so

that he died in possession.

The lordship of Man now passed to the House of

Murray (1736), represented by the Dukes of Athol, the

second of whom succeeded the last Stanley. Whether

the Duke would have been in any degree successful, had

he tried to abolish smuggling, may well be doubted, but

he made no attempt towards doing so. On the other

hand, as if to incense Great Britain still farther, he

signalized his accession to the lordship by sanctioning

the passing of a Tynwald Act, which practically pre-

vented any sojourner in the island from being prosecuted

for debts incurred in England or abroad. 1 A more un-

patriotic act was never passed, yet it must have been

recommended to the Duke by his Manx councillors, for

he was a perfect novice in Manx law when he sanc-

tioned this statute (1736), along with thirteen others.

Through the self-denying and unwearied labours of

the apostolic Bishop Wilson, the temporal and spiritual

condition of the island was rapidly improving, in spite

of the demoralizing influence of the illicit traffic, when

this Protection Act, as it was afterwards called, “ ren-

dered Man,” in the words of its historian, “ for nearly a

century afterwards, the sanctuary of the unfortunate

and profligate of the surrounding nations, who flocked

thither in such numbers as to make it a common recep



tacle for the basest of tlieir kind.1 No doubt the flock-

ing was limited chiefly to the seaports, but it tainted the

whole island more or less, and the honest and the up-

right were involved m the stigma which the protection

of fraudulent debtors, and other knaves, brought upon

the Manxmen as a people. 2 The Duke, however, who

passed this act, not only succeeded in retaining posses-

sion of the island during his lifetime, but was furnished

by the coronation of George ill. in 1761, with an oppor-

tunity of doing homage to the king for the lordship of

Man; and as his services were accepted, he was recon-

firmed in his rights and privileges as Lord of Man. But

when he died, three years after, and was succeeded by

his son-in-law, the third Duke of Athol, who, in right of

his wife, became possessed of the Isle of Man, the Lords

of the Treasury lost no time in pressing for its sale

(1764). They significantly hinted, at the same time,

that as Government was determined to put down the

Manx system of smuggling, another mode of dealing

would be adopted if the Duke did not accept their terms.

He temporized for a while;but as within a year a bill

was brought into Parliament to abolish “ the clandestine

and illicit trade carried into and from the Isle of Man,”

which threatened to strip him, without any remuneration,


2 Sir Walter Scott’s allusion to thecondition of the island at this time, in

the introduction to Peveril of the Peak,is not more favourable

;and, from all

the accounts of its demoralization, oneis tempted to think that the bitter satire

passed upon the Isle of Man two cen-turies before, must have been propheticof the time we are considering :

—

“ When Sathane tried his arts in vaine,

Ye worship of ye Lord to gaine.

Ye yird, he said, and all be thine

Except ane place, it maun be mine.

Though bare it is, and scarce a span,

By mortals called ye Ysle of Man;

That is a place I cannot spare,

For all my choicest friends are there !”

—Irvine’s Historke Scoticce Nomencla-tura. Edin. Edit., 1682. Quoted in

Train’s Isle of Man, p. 30.

B


of his Manx possessions, lie came to terms. According

to these he sold the island in 1765 for £70,000, and

an annuity of £2000, hut reserving certain rights to his

duchess and to himself, and to their successors. He was

succeeded in 1774 by his son, the fourth Duke of Athol,

and last Lord of Man, whom these reserved rights brought

into collision both with the Manx Legislature and the

English Government. These disputes were, after many

struggles, partially compromised in 1805, “ by an ad-

ditional grant of £3000 per annum to the Duke and

his heirs for ever;

” and finally, tired of continual con-

flicts with his refractory Manx subjects, he “ made a

complete surrender into the hands of Government of all

his rights,” for a sum of £416,000, and the privileges of

lordship passed to the British crown. This was in 1829.

The opprobrious protection-act had been repealed in

1814 (the year before Edward Forbes was born);and

the unprincipled fugitives, who threw a stigma on the

island, made haste to flee to other refuges. A fatal blow

had been dealt to the smuggling interests by the partial

sale of Man in 1765 ;and finally, though by slow de-

grees, its illicit traffic was reduced to insignificance.

The insular Legislature was, from 1765, allowed to

enact laws as before, with only the proviso that they must

be sanctioned by the King or Queen Regnant, before they

are published at the Tynwald Court as statute law.1 No

right, indeed, except the supposed “ right of doing

wrong,” was taken from Manxland;

it retains privileges

possessed by no other part of the United Kingdom, and

signally profits by them. Yet we cannot wonder that

i Train’s Isle of Man, vol. i. p. 249.


upright patriotic Manxmen, to whom neither exciseman

nor creditor had ever been an object of alarm, should

wish that it were still, as of old, the Kingdom of Man,

not one of the islets of Great Britam. So thought Ed-

ward Forbes,—and here, better than elsewhere, I may-

quote a song, although it is not one of his best, which I

have found among his papers, bearing date 1833, when

he was in his eighteenth year

:

—i.

Oh ! lament for the clays that are past and gone,

When the sun of glory bright,

On the fairest isle of the ocean shone

With freedom’s holy light

;

When the golden ship on a field of red,

Beamed forth on the flag of the free,

And the king of the green land bowed his head

To the king of the ocean sea.

II.

Would the Saxon dare to draw his brandWere Orry with us now ?

Would the Albion dare to lift his handWere the crown on King Olaf’s brow?

But in the sleep of death they lie

—

Their glory has passed away

—

And the children of their chivalry

A Saxon king obey.

III.

Oh ! where was the blood of the kings of old,

When Athol sold his throne ?

When our chieftain bartered his rights for gold,Was this like Orry’s son ?

Our isle is still as bright, as fair,

Its sons are still as free,

But a stranger monarch reigneth there,On the throne of the Kings of the Sea .

1

With this song none but Manxmen need pretend tosympathize. Patriotism is an instinct of all races, al-

1 The preceding historical sketch willrender all the allusions in the song in-telligible, except that to King Olaf.

Three kings of that name ruled in Man,the first a grandson of Orry’s, the othersOlave i. and ir., of another and later


though, it becomes active only in the nobler ones;and

the patriotism of individuals identifies itself with the

visible objects within the horizon of their cradle or dwell-

ing-place, concentrating itself upon a mountain or a

chain of hills, the river-bed of a solitary green valley, or

the streets and spires of a simple town. The native of a

small independent island has this advantage over the

native of a vast continent, that he can compass in ima-

gination his whole fatherland, and, if need be, die sweetly

and decorously for a larger country than was ever real-

ized as theirs by the subjects of the Roman Caesar or the

Russian Czar.

The Isle of Man is but a small fatherland, yet it is

rich in historical monuments and in natural beauties to a

degree few regions of similar extent are, and it quickly

persuades settlers in it from other regions to rejoice in

the title of Manxmen. To Edward Forbes its natural

charms were of more interest than its architectural ruins

or archaeological remains;

but, in truth, the time-

honoured monuments of a country, which have been

witnessed from early childhood, side by side with its

great natural features, are unconsciously identified with

the latter, as if they were part of them. The fortress,

' and the rock on which it stands, have been where we see

them ever since we remember, together constituting what

seems a natural whole, and as such giving a character to

dynasty. The last, known in Manxhistory as Olave the Black, is perhaps

the most famous of the three, and pro-

bably the one referred to in the song;

but the second, Olave the Dwarf, was

also a man of mark. It would be quite

in keeping with the author’s pleasant

whims to leave the Manx reader to

choose which Olaf or Olave he pleased,

or to include all three. See, in refer-

ence to these rulers, the second volume of

Train’s Isle of Man, and the catalogue of

Kings and Bishops in Cumming’s Story

of Rushen Castle.


the landscape. Some notice, therefore, must be taken

of the historical monuments of Man. They abound in

every corner of the island. “ It has within itself,” says

Mr. Cumming, “ more antiquities in the shape of crom-

lechs, stone circles, crosses, ruined churches, and castles,

than any other of like extent in the British Isles.”1

Of these antiquities, the most generally interesting are

Rushen Castle, Peel Castle, and the Tynwald Hill. Rushen

Castle, near Castleton, the capital of the island, and situated

near its southern shore, is a considerable fortress, founded,

according to tradition, about the tenth century, by the

famous King Orry. To Manxmen it is dear as having-

been the palace of their ancient rulers, and the House of

Parliament of the estate of the realm. Beyond Manx-

lancl it is interesting from having figured in the Great

Rebellion, and perhaps not less from the prominence

assigned to it in one of Sir Walter Scott’s most popular

fictions. In Peveril of the Peak, Lord and Lady Derby,

as King and Queen of Man, and Colonel Christian as the

judicial victim of the latter after she was made a widow,

besides many imaginary persons, are associated with the

fortunes of Rushen Castle in the days of the English

Stuarts. This Countess of Derby, Charlotte de la Tre-

mouille, is famous in history for her heroic and successful

defence of Latham House against the Roundheads. Her

husband James, the seventh Earl of Derby, a brave sol-

dier and devoted Royalist, held Rushen Castle for the

king till shortly before the battle of Worcester, when he

joined the cavaliers in arms in England for Charles n.

Soon after that fatal fight, he was taken prisoner and

1 The Story of Rushen Castle, Introduction, Note, p. 1.


beheaded as a traitor. Manx Royalists regard him as a

martyr worthy to rank beside the martyr-king.

A martyr of an opposite complexion is presented by

Colonel Christian, who, after the Earl’s death, surrendered

Rushen Castle to the Parliamentary troops, and gave up

the Countess and her children as prisoners. After the

Restoration he was brought to trial by the Countess of

Derby, notwithstanding the general pardon proclaimed

by Charles II.;was condemned to death, and shot pub-

licly. The Countess justified herself by the bold plea

that the King of England’s pardon did not cover treason

to the Lords of Man, but her subjects did not sym-

pathize with this mode of vindicating the independence

of Manxland. In popular estimation, Christian was a

martyr in the cause of liberty. Iliam Dhone, i.e., the

fair-haired William, is the Wallace of Manxland, and

the maidens still sing, in then’ ancient Celtic tongue, a

lament over his untimely fate.

Peel Castle lies on the east side of the Isle of Man,

about eight miles distant from Rushen Castle. It is

now in ruins, but so long as Man was a separate king-

dom or principality, it was a fortress reputed impreg-

nable. At the present day, its dark and crumbling walls

form a striking object in the landscape, and history and

romance have combined to render them memorable.

They occupy a small rocky islet, converted by an arti-

ficial causeway of modern erection into a peninsula. The

outer walls of the fortress embrace an area of some two

acres, within which, besides the castle proper, are the

ruins of four very ancient churches, one the Cathedral of

St. Germanus, first bishop of “ the most ancient existing


see of the British Isles/’ and another, the still older

church of St. Patrick. The centre of the walled area is

occupied by the grass-grown remains of what is supposed

to have been a Danish square fort, and beside it, on the

summit of the islet, stands a tall Round Tower, similar

to those found so abundantly in Ireland. Other archi-

tectural relics, ecclesiastical and civil, of unknown anti-

quity, are crowded within the castle walls;

for St.

Patrick s Islet, first as a place easily defended, and after-

wards as one rendered sacred by its churches, seems to

have been regarded by the ancient Manx builders as a

peculiarly suitable site for important edifices.

Peel Castle is much older than Rushen Castle. The

ruined cathedrals carry us back at least to the fifth

century, and the introduction of Christianity into Man;

and ruins still more ancient survive from pre-Christian

times. Traditions, coeval with the buildings, record

their fortunes, and form an important part of the mythi-

cal and actual history of Man.

In later times, the kings of England occasionally

employed Peel Castle as a state prison. Earl Warwick,the king-maker, was consigned to the dungeons for a

season by Richard n.;and the haughty Duchess of Glou-

cester, Shaksperes “presumptuous dame, ill-nurtured

Eleanor, banished to the Isle of Man by Henry vi.

for witchcraft, wore out a lengthened captivity withinits walls. Death at length released her from bondage,but, according to a tradition current for centuries, shenightly rose from her grave as midnight tolled, and hertumbled spirit was seen gliding along the battlements,

1 Second Part of King Henry VI. Act t. Scene h.


or gazing intently from a watch-tower till cockcrow

announced early dawn.

Peel Castle was haunted by another ghost, more fami-

liar to most readers than the “ extravagant and errant

spirit ” of “ that proud dame, the Lord Protector’s wife.”

This was the Manthe Dog or Modcly Dhoo, “a fiend or

demon in the shape of a large, shaggy, black mastiff,”

which paid a nightly visit to the guard-room of the

Castle, and retreated by day into one of the ruined

churches within its walled area. It was one of the

favourite apparitions of Sir Walter Scott. He makes,

rather than finds, occasion in Peveril of the Peak (vol. ii.

chap. 5) to bring in from old Waldron, the loving chroni-

cler of the superstitions of Man, the legend of a soldier

dying speechless and terror-stricken after a wilful ren-

contre with the demon-dog. In the Lay of the Last

Minstrel, also, Deloraine is compared to him

“ Of whom the story ran

That spoke the spectre-houncl in Mao .” 1

About three miles from Peel, towards the centre of

the island, stands, in a valley, the Tynwald Hill or

Mount. It is a circular mound, some twelve feet high,

consisting, according to tradition, of earth originally

brought from each of the seventeen parishes of the

i Waldron’s legend, in all probability,

would never have passed beyond the

bounds of Man, but for the interest it

excited in Sir Walter Scott. And he

has done more for Peel Castle than mere-

ly preserve the memory of its spectre-

hound. The characters in Peveril of

the Peak are, for most English visitors

to the Isle of Man, more vivid realities

than the historical personages whom its

chronicles name.

They are such, in some respects, even

for Manxmen. The Manx cicerone shows

the stranger the very sallyport through

which Julian Peveril and Fenella issued

when they left the Castle. Scott’s ima-

ginary elfin has dispossessed Dame Elea-

nor of her historical as well as her

ghostly connexion with its walls. Fe-

nella, indeed, is as truly the genius loci,

in English eyes, of Castles Rushen and

Peel, as Hamlet is of that of Elsinore.


island. This earth has been so built as to form plat-

forms or ledges, which encircle the mound, except at its

eastern side, where a flight of steps cut in the turf gives

access to each of the platforms and to the summit. The

whole hill is covered with grass, and was once surrounded

by a ditch and rampart. The name of this mount, Tyn-

wald, is believed to be derived from the Scandinavian

Thing, signifying the Hill of Justice or Mount of As-

sembly .

1 For eight centuries or more, the inhabitants

of Man have assembled once a year, or oftener, on this

turf-clad forum, the king or lord sitting “ on a chaire,

covered with a royall cloath,” the officers of state ranged

round him on the platforms according to their rank, and

the commons “ standing without the circle of the hill/’

and spreading over the valley. Even at the present

day, though Man has lost both king and lord, there is

annual proclamation made of all the laws which have

been passed during the year, nor is a statute of QueenVictoria’s held binding in the Isle of Man, till it has

been thus proclaimed in Manx and Eno-fish

The Tynwald assembly is remarkable as a Scandina-

vian institution cherished among a Celtic people. It is,

however, but one among a multitude of tokens of thestruggles which the island has witnessed between con-flicting races and opinions. On all sides such memorials

Tynwald, written in the chroniclesof Ruslien, Tingualla, is the Thingwallof Iceland, the Danish Thingvollr (pro-nounced Tingveuller, the eu soundedFrench fashion), the ‘ Fields of the Ju-dicial Assembly.’ The term ‘thing ’isa Scandinavian equivalent of the Saxon‘ mote ’ and appears in our modern word‘ hustings.’ Some have derived the term‘ wald ’ from the Danish void, a ‘bank ’

or ‘ rampart,’ and have connected it

with the ‘fencing the court,’ as it is

called, before proceeding to the busi-ness of the ‘ thing’ or assize. The Daneshave left the name of Tingwall in theOrkneys and in Cheshire, and of Ding-wall in Ross-shire.”—The Story ofRush-oi Castle, by the Rev. J. G. Cumming,

26 MEMOIR OE CIIAP. I.

abound. Glen Darragh, with its so-called Druklical circle

of stones— a diminutive Stonehenge. Kirk-Braddan,

with its sepulchral crosses and ancient tombs, lying

beside more ancient Runic monuments, in the shadow

of dark foliaged trees. Ballasulla, or Rushen Abbey, the

last monastery which fell at the Reformation. Gloomy

Kirk Mallen, with its carvings of old kings. The ar-

chaic crossag,narrowest of bridges. The vestiges of St.

Bridget’s cells, and the succeeding nunnery, whose prior-

ess held baronial courts, and was temporal as well as

spiritual ruler of her vassals. The roofless walls of Kirk

Trinian, whose great antiquity may be measured by the

unusual size of the trees which have usurped its aisles.

The Holy Spring of St. Manghold, blessed with mineral

virtues, to which for centuries pilgrimages have been

made. The ordeal rocks, on which nuns suspected of

breaking their vows had their innocence tested, or rather

then’ guilt prejudged. Slieuwhallin (the Hill of the

Dog), with its smooth slope, stretching a thousand feet,

down which, from the summit of the hill, convicted

witches were rolled in barrels stuck full of spikes.

These are but some of the memorials which crowd the

Isle of Man, standing side by side, though representing

different ages, like the uncontemporaneous events which

are recorded in the same page of an almanac.

The people of whom these memorials are relics were

men of different races. When the Isle of Man first

dawns upon history, it is apparently occupied by an off-

shoot of the Irish branch of the great Celtic family. As

time goes on, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Welsh, Irish,

Scottish, and English sea-rovers in turn, or together, in-


vaded and occupied it. In later times, also, as we have

seen, it attracted religious and political refugees, besides

smugglers and debtors, from the neighbouring kingdoms,

including France and Holland, so that on its limited area

many races have met and mingled their blood. Among

those, therefore, entitled, as born in the island, to the

appellation of Manxmen, even when their forefathers

have been residents in it for several generations, there

must often be great differences in lineage, although their

common employment of the Manx language may con-

ceal this. Whilst the word “ Manxman, ” therefore, has

in one respect as wide a meaning as Englishman, it

specially denotes the descendants of the ancient Celtic

inhabitants of the island, who have in successive genera-

tions occupied the island for probably a thousand years.

They are still to be found in upland farms and seques-

tered nooks, a simple, primitive, intensely superstitious,

but kindly people, marrying among themselves, and

keeping aloof from other races. Unlike then Irish an-

cestors, they have no written literature, except, in later

times, a few translations, as of the Bible, executed at the

instance of Englishmen. Like the Scottish Celts, how-

ever, they have transmitted by oral tradition the legend-

ary history of their race from remote generations, and

then faith in the supernatural is unbounded. Sir Walter

Scott, who had studied the superstitions of all classes of

his countrymen, declared that “ tales of goblins, ghosts,

and spectres, legends of saints and demons, of fairies, of

familiar spirits, in no corner of the British dominions are

told and received with more absolute credulity than in

the Isle of Man.”


Supernatural beings, indeed, are for these primitive

Manxmen realities so certain, that they will not cross

their thresholds after dark, unless in company, lest they

fall into the hands of malignant demons. In stormy

winter nights they retire early to rest, leaving their turf

fires burning, that the shivering fairies may gather in

peace round the hospitable hearth. In medicine, as prac-

tised by surgeons or physicians, they lmve no faith. The

sufferers from cholera in 1832,were treated only by

charms, and plants of alleged mystical virtue; and when

small-pox was making great ravages in the Isle of Manin 1837

,the people in general refused to allow their

children to be vaccinated. To University graduates they

prefer a race of home-bred practitioners, called Seers,

whose functions exactly correspond to those of the medi-

cine-men of the Red Indians. Till one of these Seers

has blessed his seed-corn, the farmer will hardly sow it,

however propitious the weather may be. When the be-

nediction has been omitted in Spring, and in consequence,

as the Seers teach, the Autumn produce of the unblessed

seed is devoured by sparrows, the Manx medicine man is

sent for to exorcise them. So late as 1833 these prover-

bially self-asserting little birds were seen by Manxmen

to draw up at the edge of the charmed field, which they

had formerly ravaged, and content themselves with gazing

wistfully on the tempting grain ! The Seer who thus

controlled the sparrows found no difficulty, when the

potato disease visited the island, in preserving in a state

of vigorous vegetation every tuber intrusted to his care.

He was able to do this, according to his own account,

in consequence of his knowing that the disease of the


potato was occasioned by the malevolence of the fairies,

for whom he was more than a match.

The Manx seers, however, are in some respects excelled

in power by the Manx witches, who, in spite of them,

injure and often kill cattle and horses. Such, at least,

is the lingering faith of the island. Even so recently

as 1844,a poor woman was not only tried before a Manx

jury for bewitching her brother-in-law’s cattle, but was

deliberately interrogated on oath, as to whether she had

“ ever come in any shape or form,” to do her brother-in-

law or his goods any injury.

Whilst the trial was proceeding, some wag made an

experiment on the credulity of the jury, by suddenly

letting' loose a wild rabbit in the court-room. A scene

of great panic and confusion ensued, accompanied by

cries of, “ The witch ! the witch !” which only ended

when a spectator, more daring than his neighbours, seized

the harmless creature and killed it, triumphantly exclaim-

ing, “ You shall not trouble Q— [the owner of the be-

witched cattle] again !

” x

Credulity and superstition as great may, doubtless, be

found in many other districts of Great Britain, but the

acknowledgment of this will not relieve Manxmen from

the charge of being, like the ancient Athenians, in all

things too superstitious.

It would seem, indeed, as if the lingering remnant of

the cloud of supernatural beings, grim or gentle visitants

from Demonland or Fairyland, who once roamed at them

will over Europe, now, as one by one, from shore after

1 Train s Isle of Man, vol. ii. p. 170. Train’s account is abridged from tlieMona's Herald, Jan. 10, 1844.

30 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. I.

shore, “ the parting genius is with sighing sent,” delay

their return to Spiritland for a brief season, among the

credulous and kindly peasants of M an.

Besides those weird companions, the Manxmen cherish

certain strange flesh-and-blood creatures, which afford

additional proofs of the isolation of their home. Of these

the least familiar to strangers are the heightyns, a dimi-

nutive breed of brown-fleeced sheep, now nearly extinct

;

and the purrs, an odd-looking race of pigs, which are

also dying out. Much better known than either, and

possessed of undiminished vitality, is the singular tailless

cat of the island, with long hind-legs, like those of a

hare or a rabbit, and awkward, slouching gait, compat-

ible, however, with very nimble though ungraceful move-

ments. When the breed first appeared in the island, or

how it originated, is unknown. It threatens to become

scarce, in consequence of individuals being carried off

from the island as curiosities, whilst cats of the common

breed are introduced in their place. Crosses between

the two breeds readily occur, presenting all kinds of

modifications between the contour of the parents, espe-

cially conspicuous in the dimensions of the tail and hind

limbs .

1

1 Edward Forbes says of this animal

:

—“ The only remarkable quadruped pe-

culiar to the Island, and of which it can

boast, is the tailless cat, an accidental

variety of the common species, Felis

Calus, frequently showing no traces of

caudal vertebras, and in others a merely

rudimental substitute for it.”— Quig-

gin’s Guide to the Isle of Man, chap,

iv., which was written by Mr. Forbes.

A Manx tradition represents the pro-

genitors of these odd cats, as having

been landed from one of the ships of

the Spanish Armada, wrecked on the

southern shore of the Island;but it is

only a tradition.—Cumming’s Isle of

Man. Train, who is no naturalist,

however praiseworthy a historian,

propounds the monstrous doctrine

that the Manx cat is a cross between a

common cat and a rabbit ! and gravely

supports this proposition by the state-

ment, that, within his knowledge, tail-

less rabbit-cats originated in this way in

the neighbourhood of a warren in

Galloway. —Train’s Isle of Man. It


I have reserved to the last the consideration of the

physical aspect of the Isle of Man, as that which most

influenced Edward Forbes. The most distinctive features

in Manx scenery, in addition to the architectural memo-

rials already referred to, are the mountains, the glens, the

sea-cliffs, and the shore bays.

From north-east to south-west, down the centre of the

island, runs a mountainous ridge, along which occur, at

irregular distances, gigantic knobs or bosses, rising to

more than a thousand feet above the level of the sea.

Chief among these stands, at double that height, fenaefell,

verdant to the summit, in spite of its Norse name, signi-

fying mountain of snow;and at either end of the chain

are North and South Barrule, apple-shaped hills, as the

name implies, the former lower than Snaefell by only

150 feet, the latter rising to 1500 feet above the sea-

level. Besides those lofty domes which, even when least

rounded, rise into cones rather than peaks, lowlier emin-

ences stud the island, except at its northern extremity.

Here the Curragh, extending for fifty square miles as a

grassy plain, in some places fertile as a garden, in others

an unfruitful swamp or peat-moss, approaches to within

sixty feet of the sea-level. Beyond this, towards the

is wholly needless to criticise this in-

credible story;and as for the confirma-

tory fact which he alleges that the female

Manx-cat never breeds, every Manxmanwill smile at it ! I can myself disprove it,

but special proof is needless.

The Manx cat is every inch a cat, not

a cat-rabbit, or a rabbit-cat, but simply

a cat. It is not a common cat without a

tail, but such a cat with a compensation

for the missing member in long hind

limbs, and in slighter modifications vis-

ible to the anatomist in other organs,

according to a well-known law recog-

nised by naturalists. Though not so

graceful or easy in its movements as the

common cat,—which has more symmetri-

cal limbs, and a tail which serves the

purpose of a rudder in guiding or balanc-

ing its body whilst in motion,—the Manxcat is a better leaper, in virtue of its long

hind-legs. A male and female were in

my possession at different periods, for

many months, and I can testify to their

exhibiting in perfection all the feline

virtues and vices.


north, an undulating ridge of mounds, forming the Hills

of Kirkbride, poorly repeats the giant chain of the south,

and ends in a waste of sand and gravel, which, barely

clear of the waves, stretches northwards to the Point of

Ayre.

All the hills may be climbed without difficulty, and

all will repay the labour of ascent. None rewards the

climber more than Snaefell, or brings into view a grander

and more varied panorama. On its green summit, the

spectator, lifted two thousand feet above the sea., stands,

as it were, in the centre of the British Isles, and on a

summer day looks down upon three thousand square

miles of land and ocean. Skiddaw and Snowdon, Criffel

and the hills of Morne, greet him from England and

Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The lesser eminences and

lower grounds on the distant mainlands, with their end-

less diversities of hill and dale, and their shifting

shadows, recede in long perspective towards the horizon,

whilst the nearer points, mapped out in bird’s-eye view,

are seen as the eagle sees them. Between the visible

shores spreads the blue sea, studded with ships of all

nations, and dotted near the land with fishing-boats,

hovering like birds over their prey.

At the feet of the spectator, the island unveils at the

same moment every object on its surface—wild heath-

covered hills, the haunts of fairies ;romantic glens, with

their babbling brooks, flashing like silver between the

trees that bend over them;

rude hamlets;

fishing-

villages;busy towns

;rural palaces

;ancient churches

;

war-worn castles;ruins older than history ;

lighthouses

sleeping in the sun till their hour of night watch re-


turns;harbours busy with the stir of sea-faring men ;

and the shore visibly widening and contracting as the

tide ebbs and flows.

These, and a thousand other items which the eye

perceives in a moment, but which the memory cannot

recall, unfold themselves to the spectator gazing from the

Manx hills;and though none of them commands so

extensive a horizon as SnaefeU, the view from each is

similar in nature and variety. The hills themselves,

though in general outline conical or rounded, are rent at

their summits into dark chasms and picturesque ravines.

These open out into valleys;

or change, as they descend,

into glens of great beauty, through which pleasant

streams find then’ way to the sea.

Large valleys intersect the mountain-chain, with farm-

steads and pretty villages at intervals among them, and

though masses of wood are wanting, and trees of large

size do not abound, the beech, the alder, the fir-tree, the

elm, and sometimes the arbutus and the myrtle, are

clustered round the cottage homes. Wild flowers do

not show themselves in great diversity, but such species

as do occur are scattered in profusion; the sides of the

hills are golden with gorse at one season, and purple

with heather at another, and the grass is as green as that

of Ireland.

The glens which hide their quiet beauty among the

hills of Man, have a certain soft and subdued grace,

which distinguishes them from the wilder glens of the

Scottish mountains. They consist, in general, of ravines

mantled by deep green woods, hung with ivy, and car-

peted on their sloping sides by velvet mosses and fra-

c


grant thyme, which are kept verdant and full of life by

the plash of a mountain stream tumbling from crag to

crag, refreshing the sward and filling the air with its

music. There is frequently sufficient height of cliff and

volume of water to give rise to a cascade, and, where the

stream is of some breadth, a rustic mill, with its water-

wheel and cluster of homely cottages, adds its pictur-

esqueness to the scene.

These inland valleys lead down to the wildest shores,

along which, however, peaceful bays are not wanting.

Between sunrise and sunset of a midsummer day, a

steamer of moderate power can easily make the sea-tom’

of the island. The spectator from its deck, gazing on

the shifting scene, feels as if he were at rest and the

land revolving before him. Now it shows a desolate

shore, such as spreads its barrenness round the Point of

Ayre;and then the eye is refreshed by the green Curragh

and the grassy mounds of Kirkbride. Picturesque head-

lands, such as Manghold or Bradda, Bankshow or St.

Anne’s, slowly pass by. The basaltic shafts of Scarlet

Point project their shadows on the distant hills. From

the crags of the Calf, the white-breasted sea-birds, perched

hundreds of feet above the waves, ascend in clouds, fill-

ing the air with their clang. Out of the sea rises Spanish

Head, one of the ocean gravestones of the wrecked

Armada, and of many a goodly ship which has sunk

beneath its frowning brows. Near it are the kindred

rocks, emphatically called the Chasms, turning, as they

pass, then’ yawning mouths towards the gazer. Along

its entire line the southern coast is guarded by weather-

worn cliffs, whose riven ledges and torn and ragged


sides are sharpened into needle-like pinnacles above, and

wasted into resounding sea-caves below.

Between curving headlands,—embracing them in their

arms—havens, peacefully embayed, come into view in

rapid succession. Such are the Bays of Ramsay and

Castletown, Derby Haven and Port Erin, and, most

beautiful of all, Douglas Bay. With its unusually trans-

parent waters, it lies embedded, like a crescent moon, in

the south-west shore of Man. The tip of either horn is

a headland, the southern one crowned by a lighthouse.

As it flits past, the crescent opens, and reveals all the

objects which it defends from the open sea. In the

centre of the bay a peculiarly picturesque tower of

refuge stands on a reef—a beacon and shelter for the

sailor. On the south-western curve of the crescent lies

the town of Douglas, dear to us as the birthplace of

Edward Forbes. Its foundations are laid in the delta of

a small river, but it has climbed the heights encircling

the bay, and spread itself gracefully over the gentle

terraces and broad undulations which overlook the sea.

The more striking eminences are occupied by stately

castellated buildings;and behind all, the lofty domes of

Snaefell and the sister hills stand in array against the

horizon. And—besides sand and fen, headland and

haven,—here and there, as the island passes before him,

valleys opening on the sea allow the spectator to gaze far

inland. The brooks that make them green are seen glitter-

ing in the sun, with the flicker of the leaves whose

shadows mottle their waters. The white smoke of

hidden cottages rises like a veil in front of the purple

hills. The fragrance of wild-flowers comes down the

36 MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. CIIAP. I.

breezes, the tinkling of slieep-bells, and the low murmurof distant waterfalls. An island so varied and so beau-

tiful was the befitting birthplace and cradle of one des-

tined in future life to prove himself alike Naturalist,

Artist, and Philosopher. Whilst yet a child, the wild

plants of its valleys had made him a botanist, and the

spars and fossils of its shores had taught him something

of Geology. But the sea had the chief charm for him,

and in the bays of Douglas and Ramsay he caught,

whilst yet a youth, the first glimpse of those ocean

revelations which have made him famous.

CHAPTER II.

INFANCY CHILDHOOD—YOUTH.

Edward Forbes was bom in 1815 and died in 1854.

The years of his life were thirty nine : the years of his

public labours, as nearly as may be, twenty-five. Into

that quarter century he crowded more work than most

men accomplish, even when their span of days stretches

beyond the allotted three-score years and ten;and yet

his work was but half done. He was cut oft’ in the

midst of his days, with his powers, so far as others could

discern them, but partially evolved, and Ins purposes but

half fulfilled, so that he never can be more in the hands

of a truthful biographer, however skilful, than a magni-

ficent torso, which, had it pleased the Great Artificer to

continue his work in this world, would have grown, wedo not doubt, into a noble statue, but after a model which

we can only conjecture.

He was born at Douglas in the Isle of Man, on Feb-

ruary 12th, 181 5,1 and was the second and eldest sur-

viving child of Edward Forbes, Esq. of Oakhill and1 The Rev. Jolm Cannell, incumbent of tized the 12th of February 1815.’ There

St. Matthews, Isle of Man, has favoured is no registration of his birth, but it tookme with this extract from the registry of place on the day entered as that of histhe chapel :

— ‘ Edward Forbes, the son baptism,of Edward Forbes and Jane Tear, bap-

38 MEMOIR OF CHAP. II.

Croukbane near Douglas, and Jane, eldest daughter and

heiress of William Teare, Esq. of the Corvalla and Balia-

beg, Ballaugh, Isle of Man.

His great-grandfather, David Forbes, “ second son of

Forbes of Thornton, the first cadet of the family of Sir

John Forbes of Watertown,” was born in 1707. He was

implicated in the Jacobite troubles of 1745, and took

refuge for a season in the Isle of Man. He married a

Miss Quirk, whose Christian name and lineage are un-

known, and died in Edinburgh in 1771. His only son,

Edward, settled in the Isle of Man, where he acquired

the property of Oakhill, and married, in 1784, Alice,

daughter of — Holland, Esq. of Manchester, by whomhe had fourteen children. This lady brought her hus-

band a considerable fortune, but much of it was lost in

loans to the refugees, who then swarmed in the island.

He died in 1811.

His eldest son and namesake, born 1786, was origi-

nally connected with the fisheries and timber trade of

the Isle of Man, but ultimately devoted himself entirely

to banking. He married Miss Teare in 1813, and by

her had nine children. The eldest, named Edward, born

in that year, died in infancy, and his name was given to

the second child, the subject of this memoir, whose birth

occurred two years later. Miss Teare belonged to an old

and esteemed Manx family, believed now to be extinct.

She died in 1836.

The immediate paternal ancestors of Edward Forbes

were most of them, as I learn, characterized by great

activity and energy. The men, in particular, were fond

of travel, fond of society and social pleasures, freehanded,

1815-31. EDWARD FORBES. 39

and better at spending than at saving money. His

grandfather was for some time at sea, in command, I

believe, of a merchantman. One uncle died in Demerara,

another in Surinam, a third travelled into the interior of

Africa, and was last heard of some twenty or thirty years

ago, as king or sultan of a native tribe. One brother of

Edward’s perished by drowning in Australia;another was

accidentally killed in America;a third, the only surviving

son, David, who resembles Edward in genius, and is one

of the best field mineralogists and metallurgists of the

day, has seen many adventures in Norway, and has visited

all the mining districts of Europe. Whilst I write he is

exploring the mines of South America. A love of roving

certainly runs in the blood of the Manx Forbeses, and in

none of them, as we shall presently see, was it stronger

than in Edward, whose happiest hours were spent in

travelling through strange lands, and dredging in un-

fathomed seas.

Of Ins maternal ancestors I cannot tell much, but his

mother, by the universal testimony of all who knew her,

was a singularly gentle, amiable, and pious woman, de-

voted to her children, and beloved by rich and poor.

She was not, in the conventional sense, accomplished, for

in her early days the provisions for educating both sexes,

but especially hers, were very scanty in the Isle of Man

;

but she possessed a natural refinement and good taste,

which, besides other manifestations, showed itself in analmost passionate love of flowers, and enabled her to

sympathize with her children’s literary and artistic pur-

suits. She inherited her love of flowers from her mother,

and transmitted it to her son, the future Professor of

40 MEMOIK OF CIIAP. II.

Botany;and it was from her, I imagine, that he mainly

derived the preponderant ideal and sesthctical elements

of his nature. It will he seen, however, that he was

of variously-mingled blood, his great-grandfather being

Scotch, his fathers mother (and perhaps grandmother)

English, his own mother Manx. This descent probably

went for something in giving him his striking physique,

which was neither English, Scottish, Irish, Celtic, nor

Teutonic;and perhaps, also, contributed to that catholi-

city of character which kept him, though proud of being

a Manxman, free from all insular narrowness of feeling,

and made him a favourite wherever his wanderings led

him.

The childhood of Edward Forbes was in many respects

a happy one. His fathers affairs for a long season were

prosperous. His mother also possessed property in her

own right, which by Manx law was under her control;

and as he was the eldest surviving and the favourite

child of both his parents, no hampering pecuniary restric-

tions were laid upon him in his early days. He remained

in his father’s house till 1831, when he had reached his

sixteenth year, and it was thought time to select a pro-

fession for him. His mother wished him to be a clergy-

man. His father wished him to be a physician ;his own

desire was to be a naturalist;but with consent of all

parties a compromise, curiously illustrating Ins versatility,

was entered into, and he was sent to London to become

a painter. The compromise failed of its purpose, but he

did not again make the Isle of Man his residence except

at vacation intervals, so that we may now look back at

his Manx life as forming one natural epoch, extending


from 1815 to 1831, including his infancy, childhood, and

youth, and ushering in his trial of the Fine Arts as a

profession.

In now attempting to review these early days, I amreminded that the besetting sin of a friendly biographer

is to overpraise the subject of his sketch, and in parti-

cular to magnify the promise of his early days. So

much has this been recently insisted on, that more than

one able biographer has industriously laboured, and ap-

parently with great contentment to himself, to prove that

his Hero was an uninteresting or even a stupid child, and

has been careful in tracing his rise to eminence, to avoid

imputing to him any such quality as genius. To the

general public this mode of reviewing their intellectual

chiefs has naturally been acceptable. It leaves to the

clever child his chance of becoming a clever man, and

consoles the stupid child with the prospect of becominga still more clever one

; whilst the adult wise, the mode-rately wise, and the unwise, stand much more nearly on a

common level than by any ingenuity they can be made to

do, so long as genius is held to be a rare and peculiar gift,

I have no wish to disturb the complacency with whichthe majority of mankind must regard this doctrine, or to

deny that to an ingenious biographer the transmutation ofan infant dunce into an adult genius, must be a muchmoic inteiesting process, than the simple record that theeagle who built his nest among the stars, was but thefull-grown fledgling recognised to be an eaglet from themoment that he chipped the shell.

I can find no room, however, for transmutational in-genuity in writing of Edward Forbes. Whether his case


illustrate the rule or the exception, certain it is that fromearly childhood he displayed remarkable moral and intel-

lectual powers; and if by genius be signified, among

other things, intuitive—as distinguished from the merely

acquired—power of apprehending and originating truth,

then he was richly endowed with genius. But I have no

wish to dispute about words. The reality, a twofold one,

to which I am anxious to point attention is, that unless

my estimate of his character is altogether wrong, Edward

Forbes, whilst yet a child of ten or twelve years, had, in

the first place, unaidedly discovered the true scope of his

intellect, and had begun to employ it systematically on

the subjects which engrossed his attention to the end of

his days.

Secondly, he had begun to exert an extraordinary

moral influence on all who came within his circle, winningthe affection or regard of persons the least like each other

in tastes and temper, and displaying a power of fascina-

tion over others, such as in later life, when it told upon the

entire scientific community of his country, made him a

man remarkable in his generation, apart altogether from

his genius and learning.

It may at first sight appear no rare thing that the

pursuits of later life should be shadowed forth in the

tastes of childhood, and assuredly musical, pictorial, and

all kinds of artistic and mechanical skill, show their bud

of promise very early; but a philosophizing, general-

izing, or systematizing power is rarely displayed in

children, even in those who in maturity are remark-

able for it;and if it does exist it is generally too latent

to be detected. Edward Forbes, however, had laid out

1815-31. EDWARD FORBES, 43

for himself when very young, and apparently without

extrinsic suggestion, a scheme of comprehensive study,

which, though in later life it was greatly enlarged,

was not essentially altered. This scheme included the

following out of Natural History to the full;and if we

call it a boys dream, it was a dream which the boy

determined to fulfil, and brought nearer to fulfilment

every day that he lived. In spite of all the temptations

which literature, art, and social distinction held out to«

him, to depart from the path which he early discovered

was his appointed orbit of progress, his wanderings at

farthest were but planetary perturbations, and, traced

upon the chart of his life, the outline of his scientific

career appears in almost unbroken curves, which, if car-

ried out, would give us a perfect oval. In truth, if we

except his false start as an artist, for which his seniors—

not himself-—were responsible, and exclude his nominal

study of medicine, winch from first to last was under

protest, we shall find him pursuing with astonishing

unity and consistency one object, almost from the cradle

to the grave. That object was Natural Histoiy, under-

standing by the terms the biological half of natural

science, or, in other words, the science of organisms or

living things in relation to time, to space, to each other,

to man, and to God.

To make this clear it is necessary to enlarge a little on

the circumstances of Edward Forbes’s early years. His

health was delicate in childhood. From his fifth to his

twelfth year he was subject to severe attacks of whatmy informant styles “ inflammation of the lungs,” but it

can scarcely have been the severe pulmonary affection


which, at the present day, medical men recognise by

that term. It was sufficiently severe, however, to keep

him prisoner to bed or sofa for weeks together, and to

prevent his being sent to school till about his twelfth

year. Up to this period, accordingly, he lived almost

entirely in a small circle of relatives and fiiends, whogreatly loved and admired him, and who left him, almost

uncontrolled, to occupy himself intellectually as he pleased.

His childhood, in spite of his illness, was a singularly

happy one, and shed, as a happy childhood always does,

a benignant influence over all his later years. He was

tenderly nursed, affectionately ruled, and allowed a wise

liberty; but, so far as appears, no relative, friend, ac-

quaintance, teacher, visitor, or distinguished stranger,

directed his mind towards natural history.

Nevertheless, all at once, somewhere about his seventh,

eighth, or tenth year, we alight upon him as a confirmed

naturalist. His father has built for him a museum at

his country-house. His sister is installed as curator.

His playmates are under requisition to bring contribu-

tions from all quarters. Minerals, fossils, shells, dried

sea-weeds, hedge-flowers, and dead butterflies, accumu-

late around him, and hours are spent in arranging and

classifying them.

With his twelfth year better health sets in, and he is

free to ramble as he pleases. He goes to a day-school,

despatches his lessons with a rapidity provoking to his

master, who would fain make him a classical scholar, but

has no other fault to find with him than that he is con-

stantly drawing grotesque figures on his books, and helps

the stupider boys with their lessons. Out of school, he


takes no part in athletic exercises, in boisterous play, or

in battle. He quarrels with no one, and no one dreams

of quarrelling with him. The other boys, however, ob-

serve with surprise that he never passes a stone in the

grass without turning it up to see if there are worms

or other “ beasts” below it. He has an unaccountable

fancy for gathering weeds, and filling his pockets with

creeping things. A tame lizard has a pocket to itself,

and there seems to be a mysterious freemasonry between

him and all the cats and dogs he meets. No one, old or

young, sympathizes with him in these tastes, or directly

encourages them. The servants about him regard whatO O

they term weed-gathering and catching flies in the air as

proofs of incipient madness, and hint as much to their

superiors. His grandmother, though she dearly loves

him, and does her very best to spoil him, listens with half

assent to these opinions, and denounces him in the Manxtongue, which, however, he does not understand, as pro-

spectively the greatest fool in the Isle of Man. His

mother puts religious books in his way, and hopes that

he will enter the Church, failing which he shall be an

artist. His father looks upon his occupations as boyish pas-

times. His teachers lament his favourite occupations, as

so much wasted time, and blame his relatives for suffer-

ing such busy idleness. His winning ways, indeed, andhis manifest genius disarm all opposition, and every one

helps him, but the motive in every case is to give himpleasure, not to show the sympathy of the helper with

his tastes. Thus, unopposed but unencouraged, he laboured

at Natural History till his sixteenth year. And his time

was not spent in the mere boyish collection of pretty


shells and shining spars, stuffed birds and gilded beetles.

He methodically studied, though necessarily in an imper-

fect way, mineralogy, geology, botany, and zoology; con-

trived, no one knows how, to get hold of systematic

works on those sciences;and, which is still more strange,

read them with profit. A significant order presided over

his collections, not the mechanical orderwhich subordinates

all to the foot-rule requirements of symmetry, though this

in its place he did not despise;nor the artistic order

pleasing to aesthetic taste, but the ordination which

regards every material object as a link in the magnifi-

cent network of created nature, and knows that if lost,

it would leave a gap which no other link could fill.

I have diligently sought for indications that some

maturer intellect than his own guided him in those pro-

ceedings, but with no success. Neither does it appear

that any incidental event in his early history did more

than provide occasion or opportunity for them. His

mother and grandmother were noted in the Isle of Man

for their love of flowers, and for then’ skill in rearing

them, and we may willingly believe that a similar love

descended to him, and was fostered by their precept and

example. He himself, also, more than once, in conversa-

tion with the late Captain Graves (on whose authority I

make the statement), connected his love for Natural His-

tory with the delight which as a sick, bedridden child he

received from the shells and sea-weeds which Ins play-

mates brought him. It is certain, also, that the green

romantic beauty of the valleys of Man, and the pictur-

esque wildness of its shores and sea-bays, told powerfully

on his youthful fancy; and that as soon as his health


permitted lie took to adventurous boating, like a true

Manxman, in whose veins the blood of a Norse sea-king

still tingled. But after conceding all this, and yet further,

that his special devotion to marine natural history stands

in organic connexion with his birth in the small islet

which old writers call the “ navel” of our seas, how little

are we helped by such concessions towards explaining the

secret of his precocious philosophizing ! Would it prove a

moderately successful, not to say infallible, recipe for breed-

ing naturalists to send a clever child to the Isle of Man,

lay it on an invalid’s couch, bring it flowers, sea-weeds, and

shells, and when it grew stronger set it to catch insects

and dredge shell-fish in a troubled sea ! It may be enough

to reply that the experiment has been tried, though un-

wittingly, a thousand times, and has failed. Edward

Forbes is the only naturalist whom Manxland has bred

;

and we may pronounce the recipe infallible, provided

only we have an Edward Forbes to try it upon. Assuredly

had he not been brought face to face Avitli the magnifi-

cence of material nature in early life, he might have been

a great poet, painter, or man of letters, rather than a

great naturalist. But looking out on Nature, he did as

much to the making of himself naturalist, as Nature look-

ing in through his senses did; and for us, what he con-

tributed is the more interesting element of the tAvo. I

would not m the least underrate the influence of outAArard

circumstances upon him;but they must count for far

less than the Avay in Avliicli he guided and controlled

them;nor can he be quoted against himself as judging

humbly of his oavu capacity. Some men deny genius to

NeAvton, because he gave himself credit only for patience.


forgetting that the patience of Newton was part and

proof of his genius. Let us see how far the preceding

statements are borne out by the actual testimony of his

contemporaries and seniors.

Edward Forbes’s first formal teacher was an accom-

plished lady, Miss Stowell, who thus writes of him in a

letter to one of his surviving aunts :—

“ Dear Mrs. Forbes,—My recollections of your

nephew are almost entirely confined to a few years, and

those at an early period of his life.

“ The estate to which his mother was heiress being

very near Ballaugh Rectory, Edward was often there.

“ My uncle was fond of all Mrs. Teare’s grandchildren

;

and as they spent many of then’ vacations at Ballabeg,

both during my uncle StowelTs and Mr. Howard’s resi-

dence at the rectory, I frequently met them there. Of

these little visits I now only remember, that the Forbeses

coming to Ballaugh to spend the holidays was a signal

for pleasure, and that Edward was a great favourite with

my uncle, who always spoke of him as being a boy of un-

usual intelligence and great promise. Even when seeing

him thus casually among other children, I could not avoid

observing his great thoughtfulness, and his studious at-

tention to the remarks of those older than himself, what-

ever might be the subject of conversation.

“No doubt in his rambles among those beautiful glens

near Bishop’s Court, and in his loiterings on the shores,

and scrambles on the rocks of his native island, he first

imbibed that taste for the investigation of nature which

he afterwards so successfully cultivated.

1S15-31. EDWAED FOEBES. 49

“ When his sister was my pupil I often spent the even-

ing with Mrs. Forbes, and Edward was fond of joining

our quiet little party. He seldom took part in our con-

versation, hut always showed by a smile or a certain quiet

little frown of his own (which was by no means unpleas-

ing) whether he approved or disapproved of our senti-

ments. Generally, however, he was so occupied either

with books, pictures, or shells, that he seemed scarcely

aware that we were in the room.

“ With a remarkably deferential manner towards his

seniors, he had, at the same time, an openness and inde-

pendence in speaking his mind that evidently proceeded

from conscious integrity.

“ I must mention an instance of high principle which

struck me as being remarkable in one so young. I think

he might have been about fourteen, when his mother told

me she much wished her eldest son would study for the

Church. Thinking him a seriously disposed youth, and,

soon after this conversation, happening to have an oppor-

tunity of saying something to him on the subject, he re-

plied to my remark, suddenly but firmly,—

‘ I ’ll tell you

what, Miss Stowell, you want to persuade me to enter the

Church. Now, were I to tell you candidly what would

be my motives in doing so, you yourself would be the very

first person to blame me.’ What motives ? ‘ Just that I

might have time to paint and study what I liked. Andwhat sort of a clergyman should I be, to swear that I was

moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon me that office,

which I chiefly took upon me for the sake of leisure. No

!

I 11 never take money for what I don’t intend to devote

myself to !’I need not say how greatly I was pleased

n


at the honesty of the youth. However much one might

regret that his choice of studies was not theology, his

after life showed that he had not mistaken his calling,

but that he was pre-eminently gifted for the path he had

chosen;and may he not have been a more useful man in

his generation than he would have been had he ‘ taken

orders/ without his whole heart being hi his Master’s

work ? But excuse me, I did not mean to add any com-

ment.

“ All that I can recall of the late Professor presents him

to my mind as a humble admirer of whatever was great

or good. He seemed to have an affectionate disposition,

remarkably so as son and brother. He was extremely

gentle, and had great tenderness of manner, without using

many kind words. His tone was generally kind and

tender, especially towards his little sister. Whenever her

praises were spoken, his eye lost its languor and kindled

into brightness, however deeply he might be engrossed in

his books or his drawings. He was naturally disposed to

silence, but when he did speak there was often a little

fun or pleasantry, sometimes, perhaps, bordering on the

satirical;yet never did I hear him say anything that

was really ill-natured.

“His chief trait at that time appeared to me to be

indefatigable industry. I do not remember to have seen

him idle;he used to say, ‘ My lessons are play enough

n >

lor me

The Rev. Mr. Howard, Rector of Ballaugh, Isle of

Man, a venerable clergyman of eighty, thus writes of

young Forbes :—

“ When' Professor Forbes was quite a boy, there was

1S15-31. EDWARD FORBES. 51

something exceedingly interesting in his appearance. A

stranger could hardly pass him without turning round to

look at him again, so much amiableness, benevolence, and

intelligence were expressed in his countenance. He was

a general favourite with his school-fellows. There was a

great deal of playfulness in his disposition. No one en-

joyed more any little witticism than he did, yet he never

indulged in any ill-natured remarks upon others.

“ When very young he discovered a remarkable fond-

ness for the study of Natural History, and when he was

about, I think, twelve years of age, began to form a museum

of his own at home, where, in course of time, he collected

and arranged a great variety of natural curiosities. In

this museum he spent much of his time when he was out

of school.

“ His mother, who was a person of an intellectual and

very superior mind, took great delight in cultivating

beautiful flowers and rare plants. And perhaps he mayat first have imbibed his early fondness for Botany from

the great interest he saw her take in these things. She

soon observed in him a more than common turn for scien-

tific pursuits, and was anxious that he should have every

facility for increasing his knowledge on these subjects.

Had her life been prolonged to witness the celebrity he

afterwards attained, what high gratification it would have

afforded her to see her most sanguine hopes concerning

him more than realized

!

“ He spent a great part of his school and college vaca-

tions in the parish of BaJIaugh, at the residence of his

grandmother, who, as well as his mother, had a fondness

for the cultivation of flowers, almost amounting to a


ruling passion. There he felt quite at home;and it was

no small gratification to him that in this retired situation

he was able to pursue his scientific studies uninterrupted

and undisturbed. His grandmother always left him to

spend his time entirely as he thought best. She had a

great affection for him, and he had for her. Sometimes

she would laugh at him for the enthusiasm with which he

prosecuted his Natural History studies, which he always

took very good-humouredly. Her gardener mentioned a

somewhat amusing observation made by her to him one

day. Mr. Edward, he said, had been in the garden amus-

ing himself at his little tricks. He had been for some time

playing with flies in the air. After that he pulled up an

insignificant little weed, and turned it round and viewed

it on all sides. He then went to a hedge, at a short dis-

tance, where he began to grope for bisects with his long

slender fingers, which, to use the man’s own words, seemed

made just for the purpose. His grandmother, who had

been all this time silently observing him, with a very

curious eye, turned suddenly to the gardener, and said to

him in Manx (a language which Professor Forbes did not

understand), ‘ Ta mee credjal naugh vod slane Elian

Vannin sauail yn guilley shoh veich clieet dy ve oinmy-

dan,’ i.e., ‘ I do believe the whole Isle of Man cannot

save this boy from being a fool.’ One night at the Rec-

tory of Ballaugh, when he was, I think, about twenty-one

or twenty-two years of age, he, his cousin, and some of

my family had been employing themselves by taking pro-

files from their shadows upon the wall. One of them

said to him, ‘ We will keep this of yours until you are a

Professor of something or other one of these days.’ Upon


which, stretching forth his arm and pointing as if to some-

thing far away, he said thoughtfully, ‘ That is far off in

the distance.’

“ His mother once said to me when he was a boy, and

she was at the time speaking with pleasure of his great

taste for Natural History, ‘ My highest ambition would

be to see him a good clergyman.’ He himself acciden-

tally mentioned at a later period of his life that at one

time he had wished to be a clergyman, but that he had

thought he knew himself too well to hope that his teach-

ing and his practice would always agree.

“ During his visits to his grandmother at Ballaugh, he

was in the habit of going out in a small fishing-boat into

the Bay, to an oyster-bank three or four miles distant

from the shore, for the purpose of dredging for mollusca.

One of the boatmen told me that Professor Forbes was

very particular about having his microscope with him,

and that at one time it had fallen into the bottom of the

boat without his being aware of it, and that he, seeing it

lying there, had taken it up and quietly put it into his

pocket. Some time afterwards Professor Forbes wished

to use it, but found it was gone. He did not knowwhat had become of it.

c Oh ! what a look of sorrow,’

said the old man, ‘ there was in his face then ! I did not

tell him for a while that I had got it; but at last I held

it up to his view,—and the joy that was there ! He di-

rectly slipped a shilling into my hand.’ The same mantold me that Professor Forbes used often to come to see

him at his cottage, and happening to find him at dinner,

has sat down on a stool beside him, and partaken qf his

homely meal of fish, with much apparent enjoyment.


This old man, who had known him from his childhood,

said to me, ‘ Oh, he had nothing of pride in him. I

never knew a better temper. I do not remember ever to

have seen him in a bad humour/

“ His uncle mentioned to me that one day when Pro-

fessor Forbes and he were together at his grandmother’s,

the former was examining with the microscope some small

marine animals, when he suddenly started up and sprang

out of the room. On his return, his uncle incpiired the

cause of his acting in a manner apparently so frantic, and,

his face beaming with delight, he told him he had made an

important discovery; that a certain theory had been put

forth on the subject, which he had just been examining

;

that he had always disbelieved it, and now had ocular

demonstration of its erroneousness, and was so delighted

with the discovery, that he scarcely knew what to do with

himself. It reminds one of Archimedes running into the

town, crying out Evpp/ca ! Evpptca !

“ He would pass day after day in a part of the parish

of Ballaugh called the Curragh, and in the glens, in search

of plants. His uncle said that while he was employed in

this way he never felt alone, nor found time hang heavy

on his hands. A person who often accompanied him in

these excursions remarked, ‘ He had a hawk’s eye to see

in a moment any plant that was new.’ To this person

he presented a beautiful Pictorial Bible as a memorial of

their early intercourse. This man said of him,c He was

kindness itself.’

“ The persons who accompanied him to the dredging

were generally farmers who lived near the sea-shore, and

they considered it a great pleasure to go along with him,


and to row the boat, and spend the long summer day in

his company. At times some of them would make rather

ludicrous observations on the small animals which they

found, to which he always listened with a kind smile.

He had an agreeable way of imparting to them much

scientific information, but in a manner so simple and so

free from technical terms, as to be easily comprehended,

and interesting even to persons not conversant with such

subjects. When he visited the parish of Ballaugh at va-

rious later periods of his life, he did not forget old times,%

but always met his former dredging companions with a

truly friendly look, and a hearty shake of the hand. They

all had a great regard and respect for him, and were glad

to see his face again, as the face of a true friend.

“ His humility and simplicity were so observable that

no one who knew him could fail of noticing and admir-

ing those lovely features in his character.”

Mrs. Melville Attwood, his sister, has kindly favoured

me with some notes of Edward’s early days, which I addhere.

“ Edward was principally educated at Mr. Garvin’s

school in Douglas, until he went to Edinburgh Univer-sity, but was always most studious at home, and seldom

joined in play with his schoolmates. His mother was of a

most refined and delicate mind, and her opinion was veryhighly regarded by all her friends. She always encouragedhis taste for the Fine Arts. In respect to his health, I haveheard her remark that Edward was of an extremely deli-

cate constitution, having a regular attack of inflammationof the lungs every winter until twelve years of age, whenhe seemed to outgrow the tendency

; and no doubt the

56 MEMOIR OE CHAP. II.

constant change of air lie had afterwards, in travelling

about the Continent, assisted to establish better health,

until he so unfortunately caught fever amongst the Islands

in the Archipelago. His father, although generally ab-

sorbed in business, encouraged to the utmost of his

power his natural talents;built him a little museum and

study, separate from, though attached by a passage to,

the house, of which I had the charge during his -absence

from home.

“ He was exceedingly fond of haranguing his brothers

and sister in speeches of great length, about the merest

trifles. For instance, one evening when I was sitting

sewing at a swan’s-down cape, he got upon the dining-

room table, and made a most energetic speech upon the

enormity and cruelty of taking the skin from the poor

bird to make ourselves warm. He took me so much by

surprise that I, being very young, was almost frightened

at his vehemence, and felt exceedingly glad when he

had concluded;therefore it made a lasting impression

on my mind.“ One pet recreation of his, when sitting over a comfort-

able winter fire, about dusk in particular, before the lights

were brought in, was to tear with his immensely long

fingers (which he could do most characteristically and

quickly) little paper figures of men, women, horses, etc.,

and place them upon the bars of the grate, pondering the

while which would be the first destroyed by the small

blazes that would arise from the gaseous coal. An army

ready for battle was a favourite design, though I cannot

say he had any warlike tendency, as he could scarcely be

trusted with a pistol or a gun, being so awkward in the

1828-31 .EDWARD FORBES. 57

handling of them. He was peculiarly fond of cats and

other domestic animals. Even a lizard he once tamed

and petted even to keeping it in his bed-room, when he

visited his grandmother, who was much horrified at his

choice, though, like most grandchildren, he was too highly

thought of to be denied anything.

“ Both when young and in more matured years, his

habits were most simple and childlike. He delighted to

play with young children, and scarcely ev er passed a

child in the road without noticing it. When about

twelve years old he wrote sacred poems and paraphrases

of the Bible, as well as lighter poetry, satirical verses,

etc., and at school his friends used invariably to apply

to him to write their valentines, etc. As a caricaturist

he was well known in Edinburgh.

“ His best painting, done when only thirteen years

old, is in my possession."

In 1828,he went as day scholar to the Athole House

Academy in Douglas, taught by Mr. J. H. Garvin, and

reckoned at the time, and for many years after, the head

school in the Isle of Man. “ I can clearly call to mind,”

says Mr. Badnall, a scholar of somewdiat later date, “ the

old school-room..It was a long and narrow upper room

in a detached building, communicating with Mr. Garvin's

house on the one side by a flight of steps, and with a

good large play-ground on the other side by a wooden

bridge. At the top end of the school was a large black

desk, which was raised on a platform, and behind which,

as the clock struck nine in the morning, Mr. Garvin was

accustomed to take his seat, and there preside during

the school hours."


“ It was in this room that Edward Forbes was a

school-boy. Mr. Garvin, although not a severe master,

was held in awe by most of the boys, and his entering

the school-room, and his. walk up the room to his desk,

will never be effaced from my memory as long as I

live. His approach was the signal for universal order,

and if his system of teaching was not, in other respects,

the best, I must do him the justice to remark that

order was a rule of the school, any serious infraction

of which was visited by the pains of a long cane, admi-

nistered often across the lower part of the back, from

which I have -seen many a poor fellow shrink in a

pantomimic manner, and bodily disappear under the

desk. I was then too young and too thoughtless to judge

of any defect there might be in Mr. Garvin’s system of

teaching;but since, I have been satisfied that in my

case,it lay in not being well grounded in my work. For

instance, I was reading Virgil when I left Mr. Garvin’s, in

or about the year 1836, and my knowledge of the Latin

grammar at the same time was so imperfect that I had

to go the ground over again at my next school. It was

the rapid building up of knowledge without sufficiently

reckoning on the foundation, and compacting the struc-

ture, brick by brick, stage by stage, for future durability.

I do not, of course, lay all the blame of this on Mr. Gar-

vin. I believe that he was a man of high principle, and

sincerely anxious for the progress of his boys, and that I

was fond of slinking work too often, and slow at it

when I did not shirk it. But, notwithstanding, I think

that if the same system of teaching was applied to the

mind of Edward Forbes as was within my experience,

1828 - 31 .

EDWARD FORBES. 59

I doubt very much whether it tended in an important

degree to develop his intellect, or prepare it for the

grasp of which it has since proved it was so eminently

capable.

“ I feel great difficulty in writing one word of seeming

disparagement of my old master, Mr. Garvin ;and what

I have said is not without some misgivings how far the

defect I have attributed to his teaching in my case, may

not be, more than I know, chargeable on myself. I have

said, however, what I think.

“ I should add that Mr. Garvin had an under-master,

who generally attended to the younger boys.”

He attended this school till 1831, and this teacher,

Mr. Garvin, now an aged man of seventy, thus describes

the way in which his time was spent

:

—“ Edward Forbes was, I think, under my care for about

four and a half years, during which time he read the usual

short course in classics, science, etc., but was not what

would be called a good scholar. That this was not from

want of abilities, I need not tell you, but because his

time and attention were devoted to other pursuits. His

pencil was seldom or never out of his hand;

his Latin,

as other exercises, were curiosities;there never was a

vacant space left on his paper, every corner filled up with

a drawing of some creature or other, so much so, that he

has got his knuckles rapped more than once for bringing

me up exercises almost as difficult to decipher as the

Rosetta Stone. . . .

“ His school-books, if they could be got now, would

be real curiosities, covered over as they are on the mar-

gins and all available places in the same manner as I


described his exercises to be. His conduct as a schoolboy

was excellent. 1 have no recollection of having ever had

to punish him for misconduct of any kind.”

Finally, here is the judgment of a school-fellow, Mr.

Fleetwood

:

—“ Edward was always a remarkably quiet, studious boy.

Such a thing as a fight never entered his head, and he was

never known to have quarrelled with any other boys.

His temper was always extremely gentle and sweet, and

at the same time he was so looked up to by the rest of

the boys that he was always made umpire in their dis-

putes. We all felt we should get strict justice from

him. In all the years I knew him, I never can recollect

his being punished hi the smallest degree; he never

did anything wrong. He was always at the head of

the classical classes. Indeed, he was sometimes remon-

strated with for giving too much assistance to the

other boys in their Latin construing, which was always

done entirely in Latin. He was never known to neglect

his lessons;whatever they were, they were sure to be

prepared;he would sit quietly down to them and master

them. When asked, ‘ How is it you always are ready

when we are not V ‘

I just give my mind to it for half

an hour, that is all/ was his answer. His health never

was strong, and he never joined in any of the athletic

exercises or rough play of the rest. The instant school

was over he was off, never joining with the other boys,

but quietly by himself, either looking after his insects or

else going home. Though he had few intimates, his in-

fluence over all was unbounded;

all looked up to him,

and yet no one at the time ever spoke of his remarkable

1S2S-31.EDWARD FORBES. 61

talent in one way or another. His school-books were

covered with caricatures and grotesque drawings. He

would seize any peculiarity in a moment, and perhaps

quickly open some book before the oiiginal, with, Did

you ever see that before and exhibit an unmistakable

likeness. His own appearance was very remarkable-

very tall, intensely thin, and his long arms and legs ap-

pearing all disjointed;his hair very long, and always a

habit of throwing it back by a jerk. When asked why

he did not cut it,c Oh, I could do nothing without my

hair;

it helps me to work/ He never could pass a stone

without turning it over in search of anything underneath,

and was always laughed at by the other boys for this

habit. Mr. Garvin had not the right system for drawing

out any talent amongst his pupils;but he was proud of

Edward, who was considered quite the authority in the

school on any classical point, both in Latin and Greek.

He never showed any love for lecturing or haranguing

at school, and I do not remember ever having heard of

any such taste at home, though I knew the whole Forbes

family well, and was a great deal at the house.

“ His collection of insects was the first attempt;they

were all beautifully arranged by himself. Coins he was

very fond of;and he particularly excelled in making

flies for fishing. He delighted in getting at the root of

any difficulty, and would teach and explain to the other

boys with immense patience. In the Latin construction he

was never at fault, and would often astonish his master by

the correct explanations he gave for different rules. Hewas never at any other school than Mr. Garvin s. Hestudied drawing with a Mr. Williamson, who took a small

62 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. If.

class. Caricatures and grotesque figures were inherent

in him from a very early age. He had a peculiar talent

for seeing through the characters of all his school-fellows,

but he was always so apart from them, and yet so gentle,

that he never had an enemy. All felt he was different

from themselves, but no one exactly knew how. Weall felt his superiority, but no one thought of being jealous,

he was so unlike the rest of us.”

These independent accounts of Edward Forbes’s youth-

ful days are singularly unanimous in their references to

the sweetness of his natural disposition, and his early

display of unusual intellectual power. They imply also

great diligence, manifested, however, in a most desultory

fashion.

A further illustration of this is afforded by a paper

in his handwriting, marked “ A list of compositions yet

remaining,” prefaced “ I had written some poems, etc.,

before this year, but they were all lost.” The list extends

from 1825 to 1831, so that he began to rhyme before he

was ten years old, and it chronicles eighty-five produc-

tions, the majority of which are poetical, and only three,

and these the very last, scientific. A few of these papers

are referred to as school-exercises, such as an “ Essay on

Governing the Passions;” “ A Translation of part of the

First Book of the AEneid;” “ Homer’s First Book in English

Verse.” Many of the verses are on religious subjects, and

were probably written at his mother’s suggestion, such as

“Ebenezer, a Poem;” “The Descent of Nebuchadnezzar;”

“ The Prophecy of Huldah;

” “ David’s Prayer and

Thanksgiving ;” “ The Tempting of Abraham ;” “ Psalm

xeix. ;” “ Psalm cxx. ’’ Like other young poets, he of

1S2S-31.EDWARD EORBES. 63

course wrote his tragedy. One, indeed, did not content

him. In 1830 he registers, “ My first attempt in the

dramatic line—Sesostris, a Tragedy, Act x. and part of

Act ii. and immediately beneath it, “ Junius Biutus,

Act 1 . and part of Act n.” Of Sesostris we hear no more,

but in 1831, we read “Junius Brutus, Acts n. and m.

Whether Act v. was ever reached does not appear.

The remaining poems are on the most diversified sub-

jects, such as“

‘ Ode to Mercy—this was (1829), I be-

lieve, the first ode I tried /’ “‘ The Falling Star one of

my first trials (1830) at blank verse;”“

‘ Whilst in Idas

Leafy Grove/ sent as a valentine, being the first (1830)

I wrote, but one

“

‘ The Blue Bell,’ this was written

(1828) for Miss (now Mrs. ), but never given;

she desired it herself, and on writing two verses she

asked for more, which produced these;

” “‘ Tommy’s

Ghost, a Ballad/ a school satire;there was a second part,

but it is lost;

” “ Remember me,” a piece of real feeling,

followed in the list (1830) by “ Ode on Apple Dumpling.”

Many of the verses refer to Manx legends. There are

several translations of Horace’s Odes, a good many songs,

some poems, probably complimentary, addressed to Azile

and C. C., various acknowledged imitations of Scott,

Byron, Southey, and Shelley, and not a few unfinished

pieces. Of those poems only one school-exercise has

reached me. Such titles as “ The World of Affright,”

“ The Spirit and the Flower, a Dream of the first World,”

“ Amalek, his Sleep and the Wanderings of his Soul,”

make one wish that the productions so entitled had been

preserved. I fear, however, that they were lost along with

much else during his absence in the East in 1841-42,


when his fathers household was broken up in conse-

quence of pecuniary reverses, which placed all papers in

his possession beyond his own control. The titles, how-ever, and the number of verses in each poem remain onrecord, and as the verses must have amounted to manythousand lines, they constitute a notable proof of in-

dustry, although the list is not an exhaustive, but avow-

edly a most imperfect one. Two of the prose pieces on

Manx superstitions, were published in the Mirror, of

1830 and 1832.

No reference, it will be observed, occurs up to the close

of 1831 to Natural History papers, but the omission is

designed. Under 1827, he writes, “In this year I wrote

little, as I was occupied by Natural History chiefly.

However, some pieces were lost, as the ‘ Ghost of Brad-

dan /” and under 1829, “This years composing is all

lost, save the two named, being occupied chiefly by

Natural History.”

Under a special heading as scientific, he winds up the

list with three papers :— “ Notice of experiments on the

animals of the genus Lymnea ;n “ On the formation of

columnar basalt” “ On the Behemoth (unfinished) but

these properly belong to his student life at Edinburgh.

When by and by the question pressed for answer,

what profession shall the young artist, poet, philoso-

pher, follow ? it was not easy to find a suitable reply.

Had he answered according to the desire of his heart he

would have said frankly that he did not wish to follow

any profession. He had some bright day-dream of bound

-

1 Read before the Royal Physical So- ing in a place-book which he kept at

ciety of Edinburgh, 24th January 1832. College.—A. G.

This paper exists in his own handwrit-

t

1S31. EDWARD FORBES. 65

less travel by land and sea with the pilgrim as he sailed

from shore to shore, and traversed continent after con-

tinent, treading on shining minerals, plucking wondrous

wild-flowers, watching the ways of strange living animals,

and of stranger living men, painting the landscapes which

rose Eden upon Eden before him, committing to song

the deep thoughts and the gleeful impulses of his heart,

gathering round him all the wonders of nature, and

winning her secrets from her, till at some distant day he

should return to his native land, laden with treasures and

wisdom, and crowned with glory. Such, probably, was

the nearest approach Edward Forbes had made to the

conception of a worldly vocation. But he was not more

remarkable for idealism than for common sense, and he

kept his dream to himself. His friends, accordingly,

were left to suggest a calling for him, and it might well

puzzle them to say for which of the recognised profes-

sions his training had prepared him. Some twelve years

of indulged valetudinarian boyhood, followed by some

four of wayward attention to the business of a provincial

day-school, could not furnish any remarkable amount of

scholastic equipment. A little Latin, less Greek, still

less algebra, mathematics, or even common arithmetic,

and no physical science, no French, German, or other

modern language at all, were the sum of formal learning

which Edward Forbes carried away from school. Fromthe sequel it will appear that he was also held to be a

proficient in drawing, although it is only by incidental

references we gather that one person taught him to draw,

and another gave him some lessons in oil painting.

There is no room, notwithstanding, for blame, and

E


perhaps as little for regret. The youth himself was do

cilc, eager for knowledge, and impatient of idleness. His

father was liberal in furnishing the means of gratifying

his son’s tastes, even when he did not understand them.

His mother watched with the tenderest care over her

loved and gifted child. Mr. Garvin, a thoroughly con-

scientious man, did all in his power to make the young

genius a scholar, and between teacher and pupil there

existed from first to last a feeling of mutual respect and

regard. None of those about him, however, could give

him the help he needed. That his true vocation was

Natural History struck no one, or that dredging, rock-

surveying, and shell-collecting would become the business

of his life. Nor was the want of special guidance in

Natural History his greatest misfortune. It was still

worse for him that his home-circle included no intelligent

senior of his own sex who could have wisely trained him

to habits of systematic study, and taught him by precept

and example the importance of ride and method in in-

tellectual as well as physical wmrk. For want of such

training much of his energy was unwisely directed, and

he left behind him at his death a far less compact and

conspicuous monument to his genius than his enormous

diligence would have produced, had his intellect revolved

in an orbit of smaller area, and been less liable to deflec-

tion towards new centres by attraction in every portion

of its path.

If, however, we lament this for his sake as well as for

our own, let us not forget that no scheme of discipline

would have made Edward Forbes a methodical student.

His sympathies were too many and too wide to make

1831. EDWARD EORBES. 67

it possible for him to concentrate his thoughts for any

length of time on a few limited objects. He could not

work unless his mind were free to roam backward and

forward over a far wider field than he was professedly

exploring. To abridge his freedom was to abolish, or at

least greatly to narrow, his power of working, and had

he fallen, in his early days, into the hands of formal pe-

dants of the drill-sergeant school, they would have done

him greater mischief by crushing his genial catholic

spirit, than good by teaching him more orderly intellec-

tual ways. The likelihood is that his temper would have

been soured, and his playful fancy exasperated into biting

satire. We may be thankful that he escaped this, and

that when the chances were so many against his obtain-

ing a suitable education, he should upon the whole have

received one so peculiarly qualifying him for the duties

of an open-air naturalist, which we now perceive was his

predestined vocation.

All, therefore, that I will further say in reference to

his early education is simply this. The minds of some

men are like diving-bells with walls of opaque iron, and

one small window at the top. Little light enters them,

and that always in one direction. The minds of an ex-

actly opposite class are crystal palaces, the walls all glass,

and light entering in every direction. The choicest

minds are intermediate in structure. They have windowsto each point of the compass, besides a goodly skylight,

but shaded corners abound under all degrees of illumina-

tion short of exposure to the direct glare, and there are

shutters to close each window when that is desirable, andprevent the confusion of conflicting cross-lights. Edward


Forbes’s intellect was of the second class, and open at

every moment to all the skyey influences. It would

have been better in some respects if he had been per-

suaded in early life to make it less than all window, by

a shutter here and there, but he loved the full light, and

all that he could be induced to do was to temper the

brightness by a veil, originally but one degree less trans-

parent than the glass, and, even when thickest, more

translucent than opaque.

In tlais state of matters it was naturally of little im-

portance in the youth’s estimation which of many pro-

fessions he nominally embraced. Apart from Natural

History his chief acquirement was probably a large com-

mand over the literary resources of the English language.

Although he certainly did not know its grammatical nice-

ties, to which, indeed, he was indifferent to the end of his

days, he had, for a boy of sixteen, read largely in its litera-

ture, and had largely employed it as an instrument of

thought. He knew the riches of his mother-tongue, and

felt conscious that he could employ them in the service of

literature and science, but it was as a writer, and chiefly

as a poet, that at that time he expected to render service.

He was not naturally an orator, nor at any period of his

life remarkable for fluency as a speaker. The style of

even his earliest essays and poems is strikingly unrheto-

rical. The lectures which at a later period delighted all

audiences, were, in the majority of cases, quiet mono-

logues, equivalent to his share in a very earnest conversa-

tion with his audience. His more elaborate and eloquent

prelections seemed rather thinking aloud, to relieve the

mind of the thinker, than cunningly devised speeches,

1831. EDWARD FORBES. 69

intended to please, instruct, or convince the hearer.

Hence, apart from those conscientious convictions which,

we have seen, kept him from taking the priest’s office for

a little bread, the pulpit, I believe, had no attraction for

him as an arena for oratorical display. The bar had still

fewer attractions, for he took great interest in many

questions of theology, but none, I imagine, in questions

of law. His literary tastes and acquirements thus pointed

specifically to no recognised calling, except, perhaps, that

of play-actor, which may have had its secret charms for

him, but would not have satisfied his ambition, and cer-

tainly had no attractions in the eyes of his friends. The

office of lecturer on science, in which ultimately his

genius found large scope for its utterance, was not then

recognised, as it now is, as a profession which deserves,

and will reward, the entire dedication of a lifetime to its

studies and duties;nor were his qualifications for the

office as yet known to himself or suspected by his admir-

ing- relatives.

A purely literary calling being thus debarred, there re-

mained the two very dissimilar professions ofphysician and

painter to choose between. To what extent the relative

claims of Medicine and Art were formally discussed I do

not know, but those of Art were held to be paramount.

Had the choice lain between Natural History and Art, the

former, there can be little question, would have been pre-

ferred, though in fact, as Edward Forbes had resolved to

be both naturalist and artist, it mattered comparatively

little which of the titles he bore as his professional one.

To his friends, who entertained greatly exaggerated ideas

of his skill as an artist, and could much better appreciate

MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. CRAP. II.70

his drawings than his geological or botanical speculations,

the honourable and lucrative vocation of a great painter

seemed in all respects preferable to the ill-rewarded and

dubious profession of a naturalist. As for medicine it

had no interest for him, except as including certain de-

partments of Natural History, and for its own more

special studies he had an unconquerable aversion. No

wonder, then, that disliking medicine, loving Art, and

hoping for sufficient leisure to follow science and literature

also, he should have listened with delight to the commen-

dations bestowed on his youthful drawings, and consented

to make Art his profession. Without any misgivings he

set off for London, lightly laden with sketches which

were to prove to the world his genius as an artist, and

found, as so many an eager youth had done before, that

he had mistaken his vocation, and that London had

neither room nor recognition for him.

CHAPTER III.

FALSE START AS AN ARTIST FIRST RESIDENCE IN LONDON.

Edward Forbes paid his first visit to the metropolis

on June 21st, 1831, and remained there till 18th October

of the same year. His previous biographers have de-

scribed his artistic pilgrimage to London as if it had

fulfilled all the expectations with which it was under-

taken. In reality, however, it fulfilled none of them.

The sum of its experiences may be stated in two sen-

tences. Edward offered himself for admission as a

student of the Royal Academy, but the specimens of

his handiwork, which, according to custom, he showed,

were not thought satisfactory, and he was refused. Hethen placed himself under the tuition of Mr. Sass, a

well-known London artist, who has numbered amonghis pupils many of our distinguished painters. Mr. Sass,

j

however, held out so little encouragement to youngForbes to make painting his profession, that he soon

abandoned all thought of formally prosecuting it, andafter a residence of some four months in London, re-

turned for a few days to the Isle of Man, and then pro

ceeded to Edinburgh, where he began the study of

72 MEMOIR OF CHAP. III.

medicine in November 1831. These particulars 1 have

learned from his sister, Mrs. Attwood;from Mr. Garvin,

who accompanied him to London;and from a journal

of his own. Mrs. Attwood, in answer to queries on this

point, says, “The only lessons in oil-painting which

Edward received in the Isle of Man were from a deaf

and dumb gentleman, named Robert Kerr, of Edinburgh,

brother of Lady G—,who, if I remember rightly, gave

lessons without the knowledge of his family. The best

picture Edward painted in oil I have now (1857) with

me in California. It is a copy from one of the Italian

masters, representing 4 The Lord of the Vineyard with

the labourer returning the penny, and the clerk waiting,

pen in hand, to enter the result in the account-book

before him/ It is one of the few which he took pains

to finish, and the expression of each face is admirable.

When he went up to London in 1831, he took with him

an original painting of his own to exhibit;but, although

the design was considered good, it wanted Jinisli, and

was in consequence rejected. After studying for a time

with Mr. Sass, he found the hard work it required to

become eminent, and his great passion being for Na-

tural History, he abandoned painting as a profession.

Although disappointed, I think he did not regret this

step. His studying medicine at Edinburgh was by our

father’s request, that he might have a profession to fall

back upon in case of necessity.”

Mr. Garvin has very kindly given me all the particulars

he could recall of incidents which happened twenty-six

years before. He does not conceal that from the first he

strongly disapproved of the London journey, nor does he


profess to be a judge of art. However, I think it best to

leave the reader to decide for himself what deduction must

be made from Mr. Garvin’s conclusions on the score of

bias or disqualification. He is the only witness who can

be called, in reference to the period before us. In reply

to a question concerning his pupil’s instruction in art,

he states that, in the estimate of his relatives, “ he was

nothing else than a Reynolds or a Hogarth in embryo,

and instead of allowing the boy to receive an education

which would really have been of use to him, he was put

under the tuition of a deaf and dumb man in the island

to do oil-painting. A picture of the Virgin and Child

was executed in oil. It was a prodigy of talent,and

decided his parents at once to send the lad to London

to study under some eminent artist. As I was going

there, I was requested to take Edward with me, and

make the necessary arrangements. On inquiry after our

arrival, I found that Mr. Sass would be the best person

I could select, and on him we called. Before our visit

was half over, I could see that poor Edward’s confidence

and high opinion of his merits were very considerably

shaken. He had brought some specimens of his draw-

ings with him. Some of these Mr. Sass tossed with a

humph, others with praise which I think Edward would

rather have seen the papers thrown in the fire than have

heard. At all events it was plain that Mr. Sass thought

a better profession might have been chosen, and so I

believe Edward began to think himself. I gave a fair

statement of all this to Mr. and Mrs. Forbes, and strongly

advised that the lad might be allowed to return, devote

the interim to his Greek and Latin, and go to Edinburgh

74 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. III.

in October. I think, after all that had passed, shameprevented them from agreeing to this, and so I left

Edward behind me. He went to Edinburgh in October.

I do not think that he ever turned his mind seriously

to medicine. Natural History was in short his mainpursuit.”

In another letter, Mr. Garvin says, “ I do not think

that Sass entertained any very high opinion of EdwardForbes’s artistic talents. Consequently he scarcely liked

to encourage him to make Art his profession. I know

[the italics are Mr. Garvin’s] he told him it would take

a long time to get rid of the bad habits he had acquired.

When I parted with Edward he was much discouraged,

and but for shame would have been glad to return with

me.” Mr. Garvin further refers to there having been “ a

good deal of soreness and disappointment, and no little

mortification, that hopes and expectations were not

realized,” but that Edward was quite reconciled to the

abandonment of Aid as a profession.

The fruitless issue of the art-journey to London can

excite no surprise. No one familiar with Edward Forbes’s

later sketches will doubt that he had in him some of the

highest elements of a great painter, and would have be-

come one had he devoted himself to Art with a single

eye to success in it. But after deducting the time spent

in school, and in preparing for it, the constant employ-

ment of his pen on songs, paraphrases, valentines, tra-

gedies, and what not, and the very large portion of his

leisure occupied in the pursuits of Natural History, there

remains but an insignificant residue to allot to Art.

That residue, moreover, was spent or misspent under the


guidance of a provincial drawing-master unknown to

fame, and of a deaf and dumb amateur painter whose

infirmity must have seriously lessened his usefulness as

a teacher. Add to this, that when out of sight of these

preceptors the boy was permitted to follow any style of

drawing that he fancied, and to perpetuate every man-

nerism and evil habit which he had caught from bad

models or had unconsciously acquired;and who shall

wonder that the great London master, to whom style

and execution were everything, and fancy and inventive-

ness nothing, frowned and shook his head, and, with

many a “humph,” tossed the lad's sketches aside and

told him that he knew not whether he had most to learn

or to unlearn. It was not to be expected, however, that

he should follow Mr. Garvin's advice, and seek a cure for

his disappointment in immediately retracing Ins steps to

the Douglas Academy, and sitting down to the study of

Homer and Virgil. A summer in London must have

had immense prospective charms for Edward Forbes.

Nominally he continued to prosecute drawing under

Mr. Sass, and unquestionably he profited not a little by_ . . .

"

Ins instructions; but there can be no doubt that he had

made up his mind to join the University of Edinburgh

at the beginning of its next winter session, and was only

concerned about spending agreeably the interval till the

academical year commenced.

How he spent his time in London he has sketched,

but only in bald and colourless outline, in a journal

which he kept during his residence there .

1It is a small

1 For a knowledge of tlie existence of in the School of Mines, and for the loanthis journal I am indebted to my friend, of it to J. S. Bowerbank, the naturalist.I)r. John Percy, Professor of Metallurgy The latter picked it up at a book-stall


unruled octavo, like a pass-book, with its author’s name,

his coat of arms, and the shield of the Isle of Man, on

the first page. The earlier leaves are devoted to the

journal, the later ones to a cash account, a curiosity in

book-keeping. Several pages are occupied with confused

money calculations, and still more with pencil sketches,

chiefly portraits, among which those of Lord Brougham

and Dr. Knox are conspicuous. Its statements are

exceedingly brief, some in ink, many in pencil, all of

them very scrawly, and often with difficulty legible, as

if the entries had been the last work of the evening,

and executed just as the writer was dropping asleep. In

another and characteristic respect the journal is curious.

The part devoted to London gives neither year nor

month, and in most cases only the number of the day

in the month, or instead of this the initial of the day

of the week. Occasionally both figure and initial are

given; but they cannot be trusted, for one of the

months (August) has originally been represented with

thirty-three days, and after a hesitating correction is left

with thirty-two. This careless handling of figures we

shall afterwards find was a significant peculiarity of the

writer, fostered, no doubt, by imperfect schooling in

arithmetic. As occurring in the journal it made its

chronology for a time undecipherable;but on the day

of leaving London he at last gave a month, viz., “ Octo-

ber, T. 18,” and by reckoning backwards from this as

Tuesday the 18th, after amending the calendar by

in London, though how it found its way and thence to Edinburgh, and several

there is not known. It was not left he- particulars of his residence there from

hind him by its author in 1831, for it November of that year to the close of

records his journey to the Isle of Man, the summer session, 1S32.


changing the 3 2d and 3 3d -days of August to 1st and

2d September, we find the journal to commence on

“ S. 18,” Saturday the 18th June, when he left the Isle

of Man, reaching London on the 21st. The year is still

to identify ;but by a reference to the king and queen

(William iv. and Adelaide), and to the coronation pro-

cession which he witnessed, T. 6 (Tuesday [?] Septem-

ber 16th), it must have been 1831. Some extracts from

the journal will illustrate its character. Here is the

second entry, one of quite unusual length, describing

the journey from Liverpool to London :—

“ S. 19.—Breakfast. Bill, 14s.;started by Bang up

at eight;met Mr. C

;fine houses, but no strand ;

railroad;

a steam-coach and train passed;

surprising,

wonderful;a passenger with air-cushion

;good compan-

ions;Prescot

;Warrington

;high cultivation, and flat but

fertile country;bought a veal-pie

;new road to

;

aqueducts often destroyed by frost and thaw;plenty of

wood;all sandstone

;roses, generally blush

;curious cot-

tages;Knutsford

;very few parish churches

;a populous

country;churches generally fine

;country more hilly

;

Staffordshire;

magnificent view;

potteries;Newcastle

[under Lyne];military to keep down the colliers

;women

and girls generally good-looking, being often pretty, not

handsome owing to awry (?) noses;dinner not fit to eat

;

starved;

got a biscuit, and wine and water;country

still very fine;population increasing

;country magni-

ficent, like one great park;Stone

;Marquis of Stafford’s

beautiful;Stafford

;fine town

;Hall and Hospital

;good

houses;fine town altogether

;Penkridge

; small town;

Wolverhampton; now for smoke, coal, and iron; no


more trees or fields, but coal and iron pits; railways

;

coke;

fire;

colliers;

fine houses;

blazing chimneys;

beautiful churches; steam-engines; Pandemonium (upper

surface);underminings. Houses in thousands

;people in

millions, and in the midst of smoke;no country more

populous;groups of colliers, very picturesque, taking a

‘ treat for the liozes ;’ some of them killed every day by

pits falling in;not paid, but goods instead. Saw some

gipsies under a hedge;country got right again

;fields,

etc.;fine entrance to Birmingham

;seemingly very fond

of show there;stopped at the Castle Inn

;two members

at tea;hungry enough

;eat heartily

;took a walk

;lost

my way, but found it again (Pr. G.);fine buildings

;

very grand shops, etc.;

even find that the churches,

Royal Institution ? Royal Hotel, a magnificent room;

hotels generally fine;found my way back

;well pleased

with the town;Birmingham a very fine place alto-

gether, and indeed beautiful;

plenty of people;good

old inn.”

The first day in London is thus described :—

“ Slept well all night;breakfasted ;

waited for Mr.

Garvin till twelve o’clock;went with Mr. Grieve past

St. Paul’s to Blackfriars’ Bridge;beautiful view

;St,

Paul’s there looks its proper size, towering above the

churches around it ;Somerset House looked very grand

along the river;went to see the R. Acad. Exhib.

;the

Hercules Farnese immensely large;the pictures very

showy at first, but not so many fine ones as I expected :

Etty—Maid of Judith one of the best histories;land-

scapes in general superior to histories ;Hilton a very

good painter.”


I shall now extract, under their dates, which I fill up

in full, the reference to his Art studies :

—

June 22, 1831.—Among other brief entries occurs

“ Picture safe. ” This, I presume, refers to the painting

in oil which he brought with him as a specimen of his

work.

“June 23, 1831.—Went to the Academy about entry;

rejected; bought” [the remainder, consisting of three or

four words, is illegible]. This is the only allusion to his

rejection contained in the Journal, and it appears from it

that he offered himself for admission as a student of the

Royal Academy before seeing Mr. Sass, who would pro-

bably, if consulted, have dissuaded him from the step.

The rest of June is spent in sight-seeing.

“July 2.—Mr. Sass’s gallery. . . . Write home.

Mr. Sass’s terms cheap.” Then comes another interval

of sight-seeing whilst waiting instructions from home.Letters travel slowly in those days, and nearly three

weeks are gone before, as should seem, directions for his

further proceedings in London arrive from the Isle ofMan. At length we find—

July 23. Mr. Sass; his studio; casts; drawing-paper, etc.”

“July 25. Drawing mat.;port-crayon

; Mr. Sass’s,

first time; his principles

; his pupils, etc.”

“July 26.—Mr. Sass’s, second time.”“ July 2 7. Mr. S.

, an ice, raspberry—not whole-some.”

“July 28.—Mr. S.; walk.”

“July 29.—Mr. S.; walk.”

“ October 8.—Mr. 8. ; Reform Bill thrown out,”


Similar entries occur against nearly every week-day

down to October 15th, so that he must have daily at-

tended this teacher with great regularity for about three

months;but all the references are provokingly concise,

and throw no light on his progress as an artist. The

fullest allusions to his artist work are the following :—

“ September,Friday}—Mr. S.

;went to Rowney and

Forsters for millboard, etc., cheap; and oil to begin

pictures.”

“ September 5.—Mr. S.;wet mor.

;painted the first

coat of my Tribute Money.”

“September 15.—Mr. S.;home; painted.”

In addition, he notes in the briefest terms visits to

the National Gallery and other collections of paintings,

but there is nothing to quote from these references. In

truth, no one limited to the journal as his only source of

information, would discover from it that its writer was

an artist by profession. His fullest descriptions are of

theatres, churches, and spectacles;and the most explicit

personal references are to literary productions. All the,

sights of London are welcome to him. He climbs the

Monument, threads the Thames Tunnel, listens in the

whispering gallery of St. Paul’s, is hoisted up at the

Coliseum, fleeced (not without protest) at the Tower,

makes the acquaintance of the beasts in the Zoological

Gardens, walks in the parks, takes of! his hat to the King

1 This was apparently the first Friday

in September. In the Journal it is very

illegibly marked 2 F. By the reckon-

ing of the book, however, it should be 3d,

for two days before it comes the 32d (!)

day of August, and immediately before

it the 33d, afterwards hesitatingly

changed into 1st (of September). Be-

tween, however, the last Sunday in

August and the first in September seven

days intervene, although the Journal is

professedly kept from day to day. This

fact is noticed not for its chronological

but its psychological interest.

]83l. EDWARD EORBES. 81

and Queen;

salutes “ The Duke steps into the Court

of Chancery and sketches Lord-Chancellor Brougham;

attends a sitting of the Lords and Commons ;witnesses a

review in Hyde Park and a launch at Woolwich;

eats

whitebait at Greenwich;promenades in Kensington

Gardens;and assists at the Coronation procession.

There is willing payment, also, to see the " Industri-

ous Fleas

“

Animalculse ” through the microscope ;“ a

whale,” of which we read—

“ sat in its belly;” “ Mazeppa s

Horses,” and the “ Battle of Waterloo,” at Astley’s, where

he admires the “ fine grouping besides endless walks

through, the streets of wondrous London, and endless

losings and re-findings of his way. He makes the round

of the chief theatres— Drury Lane, C-ovent Garden, the

Haymarket, the Olympic—and sees Fanny Kemble and

her father, Liston, Farren, and other famous actors and

actresses. To one so fond of poetry, painting, music,

sculpture, and so keenly alive to all the manifestations

of wit and humour, dramatic representations were a

source of peculiar pleasure all his life, but he records

his visits to the theatre in the baldest terms, such as,

“ Haymarket Theatre. New Comedy. Mr. Farren,Mr.

Harley, etc.”

He was very diligent in attendance on church, going

generally twice each Sunday, and to a different church

or chapel on each occasion. In these attendances he had

an eye to the architecture and the altar-piece, as well as

an ear for the service. Here are some of his entries :

—

“ June 26, Sunday.—Went to a church near; 1 a11 do not know in what part of Lon- have been in the east end of the City,

don he resided at this time, but, from at no very great distance from the Towervarious allusions, his lodgings appear to or the Monument.

F


poor one. Evening, to Foundling chapel. West’s paint-

ing of Little Children and Christ. Fine singing.”

“ July 3, S.—Stayed at home. Went to St. Paul’s,

but too late for service.”

“ Juty 1 L S.—St. Stephen’s, AValbrook

; beautiful

church. St. Bride’s; West’s pic. of the Mart, of St.

Stephen.”‘ £ ^ ugust 2 1 ,

Sunday.—AVent to parish church. Even-

ing, went to Female Orphan Asylum;preaching good.”

“Sep. 17, S.—AVent to St. Bennet’s. Evening, to

St. Mary’s, Walworth;

a curious church. Dr. Birch,

rector. Not a good lecture. Communion table.”

“Sep. 25, S. . . . Evening. Mr. Clayton at Poultry

Chapel;his preaching flowery but fine,”

“ October 9, S.—Parish c. Evening, to St. Sepulchre’s,

but Mr. Dale did not preach.”

From the extracts already made from the journal, it

will be sufficiently apparent that young Forbes did not

brood over his disappointment at the Eoyal Academy,

or lose heart at Mr. Sass’s criticisms. On the other

hand, he falls diligently to work in his characteristic

multifarious way, and turns his residence in London

to the best account. That the reader may judge for

himself how he divided his time, I subjoin a conti-

nuous extract from his diary, amounting to nearly one

page.

In reading, however, what follows, as well as other

portions of the journal, it must not be forgotten that it

is designedly a meagre almanac or day-book, kept in a

spirit of the utmost reticence. AVhat it does tell is of

positive value, but no conclusion can be drawn from its


silence. The rejection of the Royal Academy and the

adverse criticisms of Mr. Sass, he certainly felt keenly,

but he does not betray his disappointment by a single

word. His love of fun and frolic, and his delight in

society, must have found gratification in London as well

as elsewhere, but he only hints at this, and the general,

though certainly false impression conveyed by the jour-

nal, in reference to its author, is that of an almost friend-

less, solitary student. The names of several acquaint-

ances are given, and we may infer that “ Arthur Rigg ”

and “ Bob Gun ” were young men. Occasional dinings

out and tea-drinkings are recorded;and on one occa-

sion, “ at night a dance at Mrs. Grellier’s ;” but all is

told in the driest fashion, and no one would infer from

these entries that the journalist was one who, wherever

he went, attracted a host of lovers and admirers around

him, as infallibly as a candle attracts moths :—

“ 9.— Mr. S.;Cullens Nosology

; blank book andpaper

;160 lines in Virgil.”

“ 10.—Mr. S.;

Virgil.”

“ 11.—Mr. S.; bought a Homer for 8 s.; Mrs. Grieves;

Mr. A. G. Kirby’s Entomology; apparatus

; Malcolmon Cow.”

“ 12.—Mr. S. ; walked; went to see Carpenter’s

microcosm;

living kaleides; some optical illusions

;

animalculae; bought the prints of Comic Annual

; 50lines Homer.”

a13. Mr. S.

; bought a Mirror ; received a letter.”

“ 14- Went to church. In the evening to Mr.Fletcher’s chapel

; handsome out, not so in;

fine pulpit

;

not preach.”

84 MEMOIR OF CHAP. 111.

“ 15.— Mr. S.;Ingpen’s Instructions in Entomology

for Is. 6 cl.;did nothing.”

“16.—Mr. S.;

stayed in house; took a walk in

Cheapside in the evening.”

“17.—Mr. S.;went to Millwall

;plants, insects,

stones;

Isle of Dogs;thunderstorm

; coached home.”

“ 18.—Mr. S.;housed it.”

Cullen’s Nosology, it appears from another entry,

cost a shilling, and I am afraid was dear at the price, for

it was probably never read. Its purchase, however, is

significant, as showing that Edward Forbes was early in

July looking forward to exchanging Art for Medicine as

a profession. Homer and Virgil had likewise a prospec-

tive professional value for him, as keeping up his know-

ledge of Greek and Latin;but their literary interest

was probably still greater. It was to Literature, indeed,

next to Art, that he devoted most of his time in London.

Natural History, as he then especially loved to study it,

among its living objects, in the open air, could not be

prosecuted in the Great City, so, when tired of handling

the pencil, he took up the pen and became a litterateur.

The most impassioned entry in the journal is the follow-

ing, under August 20th :

—“Mr. S.;my first writing in

print hi the Mirror, but rather blundered by printer

;

walked all Oxford Street;west part not so fine as east.

Hyde Park;home by Strand

;sent another to Limbird

[the publisher of the Mirror], ‘ El ultimo suspiro del

Moro ; wrote out The Tulip also for him;bought a

new hat for twelve shillings;what’s a Pic-Nic ?

Whether the new hat was bought on the strength of

the expected income which his writings should bring


him, or simply to celebrate his admission into the goodly

guild of writers of books, or with an eye to the mysteri-

ous Pic-Nic which so suddenly appears above the horizon,

the taciturn journal does not decide. But that he was,

if not elated, at least comforted by the reflection of his

literary genius from the pages of the long dimmed and

forgotten Mirror

,

appears from an entry five days

later :—

“ September 25.—Mr. S.;put three communications

in post;one to Mirror, one to the Metropolitan, and

one to the Englishmans [.Magazine] ;

wrote out ‘ The

Ode on Painting.’”

From the list of compositions referred to in last

chapter, it appears that the first writing was “ Paper on

Manx Superstitions/’ in Mirror, No. 504, for August

1831, “ The Tulip,” and “ The Last Sigh of the Moors

[El ultimo suspiro del Moro),” “ Ballad wrote in imit.

of Southey,” are marked in ink as “ sent to Limbird for

Mirror,” but they were not, it should seem, inserted, for

the statement is scored through. From the same list, it

appears that another of his poetical effusions called “ The

Moss Bose,” was written in imitation of Shelley’s “ Sensi-

tive Plant,” and sent to the Englishman’s Magazine, which

however failed, so that the verses never were printed. I

do not know what the communication addressed to the

Metropolitan was. So the Journal proceeds with tanta-

lizing brevity, till, under October 1 0th, we read—“ Mr. S.

;

received a letter with home orders.” On the 17th, the

only words legible in the brief entry are, “ Packing up

and the next page of the Journal is headed “ Journey

from London.” Edward Forbes left London on the 18th

86 MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. CHAP. III.

October 1831. When lie returned to it as a residence,

eleven years later, it was to occupy one of its places of

honour, and to rise from this, year by year, to higher

distinction, till, when he left the metropolis in 1854, the

eyes of the whole nation were upon him, and its chief

cities battled which should count him among its livingO O

glories.

CHAPTER IV.

ACADEMIC STUDENT LIFE IN EDINBURGH.

From London Edward Forbes returned to the Isle

of Man, and remained there till the close of the month,

making preparations for commencing the study of medi-

cine in Edinburgh during the approaching winter session.

On 31st October he left Douglas, and, sailing by steamer

from Ramsey Bay to Glasgow, reached Edinburgh on

November 3d, 1831, where, without delay, he matricu-

lated hi the University, and began the study of anatomy

and chemistry.

Several of his biographers have dated his arrival in

Edinburgh a year later, but this is a mistake which it

seems well to correct at the outset. The Journal, so

fully referred to hi the last chapter, is sufficient to

decide the matter. Two pages are occupied with the“ Journey from London,” extending over three days,

and concluding on October 20th, with “ The sea once

more;the island in sight

;home

;all right

;end of

London tour.”

The next page is entitled “ Journey to Edinburgh,”and begins—“ On Monday, 31st October, left Douglas in

the gig, and got to Ramsey at seven at night.” “ On

88 MEMOIR OF CHAP. IV.

Thursday, 3d November, we read—“ Breakfast at Glas-

gow;booked outside

;middle road to Edinburgh

;tre-

mendous snow;

Edinburgh.” Next day was plainly

spent in making calls, and taking a stroll through the

strange city. Among other entries occur—“ Friday.

Dr. Farquharson;Arthur Seat

;Salisbury Crags

;High

Street;New Town.” There is no entry against the

Saturday or Sunday. The last entry runs—“ Monday.—University

;Dr. Knox, etc.” It was thus on the first

Monday of November 1831, that Edward Forbes com-

menced his studies in Edinburgh. He entered the Uni-

versity of Edinburgh as a student in 1831, and returned

to it as a Professor in 1854. My own connexion with

the University extended over nearly the same period,

and in looking back across the quarter century that

separated the student from the Professor, I have been

startled by the number and magnitude of the changes

which together we witnessed.

In 1831, the Reform Bill was still a Great Perhaps,

and men were mad with hopes and fears as to what the

end would be. The first ripple had scarcely stirred the

waters of ecclesiastical strife. Religious Oxford had not

begun to exchange glances with Rome, or the Church of

England to quicken with the abounding life which now

runs in her veins. The perfervidum ingenium of the

Scottish Presbyterians seemed needlessly wasting itself

on a small question affecting the mode of inducting a

minister, and was itself unconscious that it was about to

convulse the country, and rend asunder the Church of

Scotland. Ireland seemed to have passed into a state of

chronic rebellion beyond hope, or help, or cure, for gene-


rations to come. The cholera had just planted its black

flag on our shores, and the most stout-hearted quailed

before the new lieutenant of death;but no one perceived

that the black flag had a silver lining, that the dreaded

pestilence was a just and merciful avenger, or that the

statistics of its slaughter were the necessary preamble of

those sanitary enactments which are saving more lives

than it took away. It has had to smite once again;to

summon in its tram the potato disease, the Irish famine,

the Irish fever, and to bid them do their worst before

men would perceive that it bore the sword of God, or

that its visits were judicial, and its chastisements in

mercy. But as yet all this was in the future.

The map of Great Britain was meted out by mail-

coach chronometer, and the Postmaster-General’s time-

bill was an immensely vaster region than it is now. It

took Edward Forbes three days to reach the Isle of Manfrom London, and three more to reach Edinburgh from

the Isle of Man. There was but one public railway in

England, and none in Scotland or Ireland; and even

the Duke of Wellington, appalled by the death of Hus-kisson, shrank for years from the risk of a similar fate.

No steamship had crossed the Atlantic, or gone forth ona long voyage into the open ocean, and according to

supposed authorities, none ever would. Screw-pro-pellers were still unheard of. Iron ships were rare

novelties; and old sailors were still laughing at thenotion of war steamers.

The Penny Postage was not yet an idea, even to theimagination of Rowland Hill. The Electric Telegraph,which might have been in 1800

,and which had been


seen to be a possibility since 1820, was still no more

than one, and seven years were to pass before England

received at the hands of Wheatstone her first electric

wires. Photography had revealed glimpses of its won-

ders to the second Wedgwood, and had sought the

fostering care of the great Davy, but even he could not

prevent its being swallowed up in darkness, and the

amazing future of that art was hidden from eveiy

human eye.

It might seem at first sight as if those changes were

too general to deserve recognition in discussmg the life

of an individual. But let any one who has lived through

the interval between 1830 and 1850 consider the differ-

ence to him, whatever his special experiences may have

been, between no Reform Bill, no Tractarian movement

in England, no Free Church in Scotland, no rebellion in

Ireland, no Irish famine or emigration, no railroad, no

ocean steamer, no penny postage, no telegraph, and all

these made affirmative, and he will look on a reference

to none of them as superfluous.

But besides those revolutions in the wide social and

moral atmosphere which envelopes the whole country,

there were others not less striking in the narrower, but

still wide, atmosphere within which Edward Forbes

specially laboured. Great and famous as Edinburgh

then was as a school of Medicine and of the Natural

Sciences, and shining forth, as it did, as one of the lights

of the world, it was entering on a new phasis as the seat

of a University, at the period under notice. The chief

features of this change were the immense strides which

the Physical Sciences were taking, and the altered and

I S3]. EDWARD FORBES. 91

greatly increased practical character of the modes of

teaching them which these strides necessitated. I do

not mean to imply by what has been said that Physics

alone were progressing, and that Art, Literature, Theo-

logy, and Philosophy were lagging behind. On the

other hand, Logic and Metaphysics, as taught by the

illustrious Sir William Hamilton, were about to invest

Edinburgh with a new lustre as a school of Philosophy

;

and the name of John Wilson was still a mighty spell to

attract strangers to the Moral Philosophy classroom.

But these chairs, and still more those of Classics and

Theology, had little influence over the subject of this

Memoir, and therefore I pass them by.

In speaking of the Natural Sciences more fully, I

'will not deny that we easily deceive ourselves as to the

greatness and importance of the changes which happen

in our own experience. Every year is, in many senses,

an annus mirabilis

:

for some things the long-expected

harvest;for others the hopeful seed-sowing

;for others

the midway bursting of the flower-bud, with the spring

behind and the uncertain autumn yet to come. In the

perspective of the whole world’s progress, the doings of

twenty-five years diminish mto a point so microscopic,

that the historian does not dip his pen twice in record-

ing them all. But twenty-five years, especially whencounted from the close of boyhood, are a long period in

the longest human life, and a large part of a century.

For us, accordingly, of this generation, the years between1831 and 1855 must bulk large, even if it were not thecase, as it certainly is, that they form a quarter centuryremarkable for the rapidity and completeness of the

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change which it saw impressed upon all the physical

sciences.

The chief science on which Medicine rests, Anatomy,

was still paralysed in its progress by the legal restric-

tions which connected its study with the punishment

or the commission of crime. The hangman was the

only official from whose hands a dead human body could

be lawfully procured, and the more thoughtless among

the students anticipated a public execution with a cer-

tain grim satisfaction and professional interest, which we

may be glad none need entertain at the present day.

The atrocities of Burke and Hare had spread terror and

indignation throughout the country, and, although in

reality their crimes had saved the graves of the dead

from desecration, a natural reaction of feeling led the

entire community to watch their churchyards with re-

doubled jealousy, and to show no pity to the mercenary

resurrectionists or adventurous surgeons whom they

surprised at their ghoulish work.

One of my earliest remembrances of this period, is

of a fellow-student lying under charge of the police in a

surgical ward of the Infirmary,

1 with a gunshot wound

received in a resurrectionary expedition to Musselburgh

churchyard. He was looked upon as a martyr by the

students, and as little better than a murderer by the

people. The law dealt mildly with such transgressors,

and, till roused by the hideous murders in Edinburgh,

was, in regard to resurrectionism generally, Justice with-

out the scales, and with a very thick bandage over her

1 This was before the occupation of the present Surgical Hospital, which was then

in course of arrangement.


eyes. There was no doubt a Habeas Corpus Act for

such cases, but the afflicted relatives who put it in

operation to recover the bodies of those of whom the

grave had been robbed, might have pronounced it, in

bitter irony, a dead letter.

The janitors of the anatomical rooms detected a law

officer through the most cunning disguises, and had

always extreme difficulty in understanding his errand

when he produced a warrant to search for a body missed

from its grave. If at length he was admitted, it was

not till the corpus delicti had vanished through a hole

in the wall, or had otherwise disappeared, and with

looks of innocence or indignation every one disclaimed

all knowledge of the matter. It was rumoured, indeed,

that on such occasions the detective’s purse was heavier

when he left than when he entered, but could that have

any connexion with his reporting that his mission had

failed ? The memory of these things is fast passing

away, but it is only recently that a lecture-room was

taken down in Surgeon Square, Edinburgh, provided

with a sliding pannel through which subjects were hoisted

into a dark garret whenever the approach of a sheriff's

officer was signalled from the gate .

1 Edward Forbes’s

first scientific lectures were delivered in this room.

Things had reached a crisis at this period. The re-

petition in London of murders to supply the dissecting-

rooms with “ subjects,” at length roused the Legislature to

the necessity of a total change in the law, but it was not

1 This fact was communicated to me University of Glasgow, he found theby my friend Professor Allen Thomson, anatomical rooms furnished with a simi-who added that when he entered on the lar arrangement,duties of the Chair of Anatomy in the

9

94 MEMOIR OP CHAP. IV.

till 1832 that this change was effected. The University

Societies were still discussing in formal debate the rights

of a dead man’s body.

It fell to my own lot about this time, as the solitary

medical student in the University Diagnostic Society, to

defend the Anatomy Bill at one of its meetings;but 1

cannot remember whether the Ayes or Noes had it. Nor

was it matter of half so much concern to the combatants

which side was victorious by number,' as Avhich was

most skilful in fence. He would have been counted a

very unworthy member who could not, on due notice,

take either side on this or any other topic;and it must

not be held as implying indifference to truth, that to

make a good speech was considered much more im-

portant than to win a verdict. The debates were

gymnastic exercises. The members were training them-

selves for the bar, the pulpit, or the academic chaff, if

haply they might reach one or other of these high places,

and could not always be discussing “ Was Charles i. a

Martyr?” A novel topic was welcome to all classes of

students, and it was discussed by them in a novel

fashion. Eloquent embryo advocates were not wanting

on the one side to affirm that as doctors were the chief

gainers by the progress of anatomy, their bodies should

be the first if not the only ones to be sent to the dis-

secting-rooms. On the other side, indignant half-fledged

doctors hasten to reply, that as lawyers were the chief

gainers by the existence of laws, they should be com-

pelled to enlist as soldiers or sailors in times of civil

rebellion and threatened foreign invasion, and should

first of all men give their living bodies to defend the

18:3

1

. EDWARD FORBES. 95

realm. Much grave nonsense, intentional as well as un-

intentional, was talked on both sides. There was endless

punning on the difference between His Majesty’s subjects

and the doctor’s subjects, and serio-comic discussions

on such physico-metaphysical problems as “ Can a given

entity be at the same time a subject and an object ?”

No one, I suppose, made more puns on the matter than

Edward Forbes. Some time after Mr. Warburton’s

Anatomy Bill had come into operation, and whilst it was

exciting great disappointment by its imperfect working,

he assisted in rousing his fellow-students to petition for its

improvement by the following characteristic doggrel

:

—

THE ANATOMY BILL.

0 come, ye grieving medicals, and listen to my lay,

Warburton’s Bill the subject is, a bad one, too, you’ll say;

But wlial else can I sing about, since in the rooms around,

Than that curs’d bill, no other subject happens to be found !

0 measureless the evils are, that measure hath brought on

:

Anatomy is cut up quite, and surgery is done !

The demonstrators, too, are now all at their wits’ end set

:

And though they’re at extremities,not one limb can they get.

Should one by chance a thorax get, one’s parted from the partBy that disheartening bill ere yet one can cut up the heart

;

Our bones are boned and buried too, ere bonus we may gain,And to examine arteries, we try it all in vain.

Tile lecturers deserted are, amid their empty rooms,And grave as dead men lying fast enshrouded in their tombs !

Ro resurrectionist dare take his digger in his paws,Lest that curs’d bill should hook him with its prohibition clause.

Ihe bill which burking should prevent has burked anatomy !

Ihe bill for keeping murder down has murdered surgery !

n,e operation s capital, as some old fools have said,

Since operations of all sorts it knock’d hath on the head!

0 Billy, Billy Warburton ! what have you been about ?More subjects far had been brought in, had your bill been thrown out

;

And if with better measure you don’t furnish us, I ween,Soon in the schools, as well as rooms, no body will be seen !

96 MEMOIR OE C11AP. IV.

Then rouse yc, suffering medicals, your sentiments declare;

The dead weight of Warburton’s Bill no longer calmly bear;Petition ! meet ! and speechify ! seize all sorts of occasions

To demoustrate how much you stand in need oi demonstrations

!

Such jestings may seem to some inconvenient, but in

truth they were a sign that the worst was over. So

long as Resurrectionism was a perilous reality, no de-

bating society discussed it, and no one made jests upon

it. When, moreover, it led to murder,—and for a season

a large section of the public looked on every surgeon

and physician as indebted for his skill in saving life to

previous treacherous success in taking it away,—a cry of

horror and indignation went round the land, and every

voice was raised in deprecation or reprehension. By

and by, however, when the only criminals were found

to be one or two of the basest of mankind, and a cure

for the immediate evil—which, moreover, could not but

signally advance the progress of medicine—was seen to

be within easy reach, the public became ashamed of the

inordinate terror it had betrayed, and fell to mocking

and making light of the spectre before which it had so

recently been dumb. It was quite safe to laugh at it

now that it had decayed and waxed old, and was ready

to vanish away. But we must not forget that without

the terror we should never have had the laughter, and

that the introduction into the English language of the

verb “to burk,” which, in spite of its vile associations,

has met with so wide an acceptance, was the prelude to

the introduction of the Anatomy Bill, which has done so

much in Great Britain for the science of physical life,

and for the art of healing.

The bill for a while worked badly. Edward Forbes


studied the structure of the human frame under disad-

vantages unknown to students of the present day. In

1831,and even considerably later, the medical student

was driven to expedients which made the progress of

anatomy very slow. A legacy of his incorporeal bones

was one of the choicest gifts which the ‘passed’ surgeon

or physician could confer upon the under-graduate, still

contemplating with alarm the terrors of the Examination

Hall and the realities of practice. Churchyard relics,

brown as the soil to which they were fast returning, and

such as no student would now finger, were carefully pre-

served and diligently handled. An entire human skull

was in possession of very few ;a complete set of dead

bones was in possession of none, and inaccessible gene-

rally to all. Many were indebted to casts or engrav-

ings for nearly all that they knew of the structure of

the body.

The practice also of consigning the bodies of executed

criminals to the anatomists, which at one time had been

a decided boon to medical science, had latterly become

the opposite, by investing all post-mortem examinations

with an air of ignominy. This was especially the case

with the humbler classes, whose vague dread of dissec-

tion was sharpened into precision by the vulgar broad-

sides sold through the streets after every execution. In

his “ dying speech,” which was as authentic on this as on

most other matters, the condemned criminal was always

represented as anticipating with greater horror the touch

of “ Monro’s scalpel ” than aught else that could come

after death.

Time and the decreasing frequency of executions

G


lkave gradually effaced this feeling, or prevented its de-

velopment. But when we consider how many the hin-

drances were, the wonder is that so many men were

educated to the highest skill as physicians and surgeons.

The student thus trained had more credit than his sue

cessor at the present day, surrounded by all the appli

ances for prosecuting science which now abound. But

no amount of genius, patience, and perseverance can com-

pensate for scantiness of the essential matter on which

they are to expend themselves. The practical art of

medicine might make shift to go on, but there could be

no enlarged science of anatomy, or a full development of

physiology and biology, whilst teacher and pupil were

debarred from the amplest exploration of the bodies

of the dead. It is far from a mere coincidence that

those sciences have been totally revolutionized since the

passage of the Anatomy Bill.

Chemistry, not less than anatomy, though for other

reasons, was also during Edward Forbess novitiate in

the throes of a great change. A corner of the mantle

of Joseph Black had fallen, late in the preceding cen-

tury, on Charles Hope, a lesser but still a considerable

prophet. In his hands the Edinburgh Chair of Chemis-

try had become the most famous in Great Britain;

and, except in Paris, it had been unsurpassed in one

particular for quarter of a century in Europe. It owed

this pre-eminence to the grace and skill with which

the Professor illustrated his daily winter lectures by

an ample exhibition of happily devised and dexterously

executed experiments. Dr. Hope had nothing of the

fascinative eloquence or genius of Davy, or of the in-


ventive manipulative skill of Wollaston, or of the pene-

trating insight of Dalton. His elocution was slow and

pompous;his manner cold and ungenial

;but he was

an admirable expositor, and a most successful public

experimenter. Had his love of science or his ambition

been greater, he had capacity sufficient to have made

himself distinguished as a discoverer. But he was satis-

fied with the reputation and the wealth which his Uni-

versity lectures brought him, and he fairly earned and

deserved both. Experimental illustration of prelections

was not a novelty of his introducing. But no one before

him, in this country at least, had ventured to give a

series of strictly scientific lectures, extending for five

days weekly over nearly six months, and each illustrated

to the full by experiments. To his honour be it said, he

simplified and legitimately popularized chemistry with-

out vulgarizing it. There were no needless blazings of

phosphorus, or showy exhibitions of blue lights. Aconjuror might have envied his dexterity of hand, but

he would have despised the total absence of theatrical

display, and have smiled at the serious gravity with

which the Professor poured an acid on a lump of chalk,

and solemnly expounded why the latter effervesced. Hewas little loved, but greatly respected by the students

;

who complained of his chilling, unsympathizing manner,

but at the same time acknowledged their obligations to

him as a teacher.

Like all other good teachers of a rapidly advancingscience, he unavoidably, and to a great extent uninten-tionally, made his pupils eager for more than even hecould give them. The phrase, to

“ read a lecture,” so

100 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. IV.

common in the English Universities, had, to a great

extent, lost its significance in those of the North, and

even the word £

lecture’ had ceased to accord with its dic-

tionary meaning. Every subject of academic prelection

admitting of public experimental illustration had come

to receive it, and the lecture had necessarily acquired

much of the character of a commentary, often rendered

extempore by the exigencies of experiment. The re-

volution thus effected on the style of lecturing led to

further changes. If it were good for the student sitting

in the lecture-room not merely to hear a striking physical

phenomenon described, but to witness it reproduced and

made patent to his senses;and if the great laws of

chemistry, heat, electricity, and the like, were rendered

doubly intelligible by systematic illustrations of their

working on matter, it would be still better if the students

could one by one repeat such experiments for themselves,

and make themselves thoroughly familiar with at least

the leading phenomena, and the more important laws of

the fundamental physical sciences. Moreover, in the

case of chemistry, a knowledge of its methods of analysis

as an art was not less valuable to the physician than a

The want thus felt was long left unsatisfied. A

pecuniary means, formed themselves into small societies,

in the University refer to the scenes which occurred at

these assemblages— the only “ practical chemistry classes”

familiarity with its laws as a science.

few of the more energetic students, who had sufficient

of the earlier part of this century. There were the usual

1831 .EDWARD FORBES. 101

number of conflagrations and unintentional explosions,

with much breakage of glass;and the acquisition, on the

part of some, as their subsequent career proved, of both

science and practical skill .

1 But suitable rooms, appa-

ratus, books, and teachers were beyond the reach of the

majority of students, who, moreover, could not afford to

pay for such as were attainable. Dr. Hope gave little

or no encouragement to the new movement, which ran

counter to his personal tastes, and did not promise to

serve his pecuniary interests. But shortly before Edward

Forbes began his medical studies, Dr. David B. Reid,

beyond the University walls, had commenced a system

of instruction in Practical Chemistry which for the time

was a great advance. It aimed more at enabling each

student to familiarize himself by experiments made

under the directions of a teacher, with the properties

of the chief chemical substances, and the phenomena

attending then’ action on each other, than at making

him a practical chemist in the sense of an analyst

;

but it did something for him also in this respect. The

introducer of this system was a man of great energy,

and by satisfying, to some degree, a strongly felt want

of the time, laid the foundation of our educational

system of practical chemistry. His scheme was far

too rough and rudimentary to serve for more than a

beginning, but it was easy to graft upon it a better

system, and to introduce on its basis the admirable

methods of practical instruction in chemical research

and analysis which have been prosecuted on a smaller

l\vo of the most zealous ancl dis- the present Professors of Materia Medicatinguished performers at these prehis- and Clinical Surgery, Dr. Christisontone practical chemistry classes, were and Mr. Syme.


scale by the great chemists of England, but matured

mainly in the laboratories of Sweden, France, and

Germany. Edward Forbes was a zealous student in

chemistry, both under Dr. Hope and Dr. Eeid.

Where the two fundamental sciences of the eminently

realistic and practical profession of Medicine were thus

daily coming before the student in a more concrete form,

the cognate sciences could not long avoid a similar change.

If the novice could best learn Anatomy by taking up the

scalpel and forceps, and dissecting for himself;and could

best learn Chemistry by handling the retort and crucible,

and familiarizing his own eyes and fingers with the

appearance of chemical substances and the modes of

manipulating them, was this not also the best plan for

learning the other sciences which dealt in concrete

realities ?

Each physical science, in the ratio of its progress,

was feeling the necessity of recognising this principle, in

expounding, as well as in acquiring, the truths which it

embodied, but each likewise affected, by contagion, all

the other physical sciences, and was in turn affected by

them. Botany, for example, had always been taught

practically in Edinburgh, which has been adorned for

generations by an admirable and constantly improving

“ Physic ” or Botanic Garden. The site of tins had been

altered at long intervals, as the extension of the town

rendered expedient. Thirty years ago, although it had

not attained its present perfection, it was one of the

finest gardens of its kind in the country. An abundant

display of plants growing in the open air illustrated the

botanical systems. There were large plots set apart for


the more important herbs, etc., used in medicine, and

ample greenhouses filled with exotics.

From all those sources were obtained the subject-

matter and illustrations of the formal prelections de-

livered in a pleasant lecture-room in the Gardens, where

the foliage of the luxuriant trees, which peeped in at its

windows, served as window-blinds, and singing birds

took the place of the college bell. Edinburgh, moreover

—a city set on a hill—stands in the midst of a rich and

picturesque natural garden, possessing a Flora of great

variety, and easily accessible to pedestrians. To an

extent unknown elsewhere in Great Britain, least of all,

perhaps, in London, the energetic and genial professor

led his students, each summer’s Saturday, on a botanizing

march in some direction across the country within a few

miles of Edinburgh. In the autumn he headed a smaller

party on a continuous excursion of a week or more, to

more distant districts, such as Clova in Forfar, Suther-

land, the Welsh hills, or the Lakes of Killarney. The

field botanists who made these campaigns, acquired a

knowledge of plants, such as closet study and the finger-

ing of herbarium mummies, cannot give. They gained

health to the bargain, and enjoyed not a little fun; whilst

now and then, like other campaigners foraging in lands

not them own, a casus belli would occur, and the invaders

be accused of forgetting that the fields in which they

were reaping what they had not sowed, were the pro-

perty of neutrals, who could forbid their presence if they

pleased. The more thoughtless students alone gaveoccasion to complaints, which were rare. Genial andhearty though the professor of the day, Dr. Graham, was,


lie could become the stern provost-marshal if occasion

demanded. But the hearty welcome shown year after

year to the University botanizing parties, by those who

have long received their visits, is the best proof that the

landed proprietors and farmers, whose grounds were tra-

versed, were willing to excuse a little youthful folly, for

the sake of the good which so largely preponderated.

Taught in this way, Botany had long been in Edin-

burgh a favourite study with the more accomplished

students of Medicine. It had attractions also for the

more discursive students in Theology;and in truth,

there was a greater mingling of students of all the

Faculties, as well as of amateurs, at the Botanic Garden,

at lecture time, than in any other place connected with

the University. But the science thus cherished had

great advances to make. Impelled by the hidden law

of its own progress;furnished day by day from every

quarter of the globe with new materials to analyse and

systematize;

provided with new instruments of re-

search, and beckoned to new discoveries, by the illumi-

nation cast on its darker regions by the ever-brightening

light of the advancing sister sciences, and the ever-

increasing demands of the progressive industrial arts,

Botany was about to take a bound forward, which soon

rendered new appliances for teaching it requisite on

every side.

In the earlier student days of Edward Forbes, it was

a dispute among the students whether Professor Graham,

who was an accomplished botanist for his day, had six

or seven diagrams to illustrate the structure of plants.

A microscope was never seen in the class-room, and


the majority of students could not have told with con-

fidence which end of the tube should be put to the eye.

No instruction was given in dissecting or examining

plants, further than by pulling them to pieces with the

fingers, and examining them with a pocket lens. There

was no subdivision of the class into sections, who, in

convenient small groups, could be tutorially taught from

the systematic arrangements of plants in the garden,

or the rare exotics in the greenhouses. Finally, though

every student was laudably encouraged by precept,

prize, and example to collect a herbarium, and preserve

a hortus siccus of the smaller plants, a mausoleum of the

giants was unknown, and a museum for them would

have seemed to most, like a sepulchre in the midst of a

garden of roses.

Long before Edward Forbes returned to Edinburgh,

all was changed. Steamships were carrying adventurous

botanists to every region of the globe, and bringing back

unlooked-for plants and vegetable products to delight

the eye of the philosopher, and the hand of the worker.

Men of remarkable genius were, with unexampled rapi-

dity, turning those treasures to account, and tracing

with every mechanical, optical, and chemical help, the

structure or anatomy of plants down to the minimumvisibile. Others were studying their functions or phy-

siology, the laws of their reproduction or development,

their geographical distribution, generic and other alli-

ances, and all in addition that^ makes up the scientific

record of plant-life, with equal energy and success. Thekindred sciences of Animal Anatomy and Physiology,

advancing in their own line with similar rapidity, were


largely assisting, by their side lights, the solution of manyproblems, in Botany.

Geology had recovered to the light of day the lost

plant-world of the past, and the botanist had found the

existing plant-life acquire a new meaning when com-

pared and contrasted with it.

Organic Chemistry was at length able to add rapidity

to accuracy in its analyses of vegetable (and not less of

animal) substances, and Inorganic Chemistry had vastly

multiplied its analytical resources. A new chemical

foundation was thus laid beneath Botany as a science,

and Agriculture as an art, and the relations of a plant to

soil, am, and water, could be reasoned about from an

abundance of quickly collected, yet trustworthy, data,

such as antiquated even modern text-books, with un-

heard-of rapidity.

Industrial Art on every side was welcoming and

turning to unexpected account the foreign timbers,

bread-stuffs, dye-woods, drugs, resins, gutta-perchas, oils,

waxes, textile fibres, and the like, which were revealed to

it, by tantalizing importations, as abounding in strange

lands. Museums, where indigo, cotton, palm oil, caout-

chouc, and all the other raw materials which vegetables

furnish to the arts, might be seen and studied by prac-

tical men, were, one might say, creating themselves in

different parts of the country.

Thus it happened, that within a very short period after

the appointment of a new Professor of Botany, in the

person of Edward Forbes’s friend, Dr. Balfour, the science

he taught burst into a fulness of foliage and a richness

of flower, like the quick budding in spring of a Canadian


forest, whose leaves, travellers tell ns, expand audibly

and visibly, and deepen in colour even while you gaze

upon them. The seven diagrams of the class-room soon

multiplied to many hundreds. Microscopes were pro-

vided. The students were shown through them the

actual plant tissues, were taught how to prepare micro-

scopic sections, and how to handle the microscope.

Arranged in convenient detachments they listened to

the Professor’s al fresco disquisitions on the plants grow-

ing in the open garden, and in turn visited the green-

houses along with him. A new lecture-room, light and

airy, replaced the old one, and the site of the latter wasoccupied by a museum where preserved fruits, seeds,

sections of timber, casts and models of plants, and their

organs,—the fossils of the Coal Measures, and of other

geological formations,—microscopic sections of recent andextinct plants,—photographs of such sections,—the rawindustrial material derived from the vegetable kingdom,

and the manufactured products obtained from these

materials, besides many accessary specimens,—were at all

times open to inspection. The garden meanwhile wasextending its area, the greenhouses were enlarging andanticipating the period since come, when a new andsplendid Palm-house should supplement their range.The rapid extension of railroads, and multiplication ofsteamboats were every day magnifying the regionsaccessible to the botanical excursionists. This week, Dr.Balfour’s party were clambering up the Bass Rock,gathering, in the midst of the perplexed solan geese, its

scanty but curious flora. Next day, after bathing in abody in the sea bay of Burntisland, they were scouring

108 MEMOIH OF CHAP. IV.

the kingdom of Fife. The week after, you heard of themas having invaded Arran in the Clyde, and pushed their

foraging parties to the very summit of Goat Fell. Whenthe academic session was over, they were no longer con-

tent with trips to the more distant corners of their ownland, but organized excursions to the Continent. Beard-

less faces came back bearded; English sticks had been

replaced by Alpenstocks. You heard much of glaciers,

and were shown photographs of your friends in then-

field costume, looking very disreputable, and like so

many scarecrows.

Of the seminal beginning of these changes, Edward

Forbes was a witness;

of their later development he

was to some extent a cause.

If Anatomy, Botany, and Chemistry were thus ad-

vancing, it was impossible that Natural History, which

is their complement, and much more, should remain at

rest. On the other hand, carried forward by the com-

bined flood of all their swelling tides, and adding its own

vis viva to the stream, it was altering more rapidly than

any of them. It was represented in the University of

Edinburgh by Professor Jameson, who had won for

himself a European reputation as a naturalist, and was

surrounded, when Edward Forbes first made his acquaint-

ance, by a band of eager students of Natural History,

some his peers, others his pupils. Jameson was a re-

markable man. Grave, taciturn, and reserved in manner,

devoted specially to Mineralogy, the narrowest in some

respects of all the departments of the science he pro-

fessed, he seemed much better fitted for the secluded life

of a student, than for the duties of a University chair.


Nevertheless, there was in him a deep, quiet enthusiasm

for his favourite science, which his ungeniality of nature

conId not prevent being contagious, and he became, what

many of his brilliant colleagues failed to become, the

founder of a School. The spectacle of his perseverance,

earnestness, and life-long devotion to his work, overcame

the effect of his taciturnity and reserve. These were in-

curable peculiarities, which probably he would have been

as well pleased as others to exchange for their opposites.

After all, however, they formed only a tough rind to the

man, like that of the pomegranate, which when pierced

yields a pleasant juice, fragrant and sweet, though not

without acidulous sharpness. Intercourse with him, ac-

cordingly, soon dispelled the notion that he was a manwrapped up in himself, happy only when fingering or

scratching minerals. Side by side with some of the

narrowest opinions, which he held and defended most

obstinately, was a wide and intelligent sympathy with

the progress of every department of physical science.

Nor was this sympathy inactive. The Wernerian So-

ciety, which he founded, named after a mineralogist,

but including every class of naturalists, and discussing

every branch of then- science, was one evidence of the

catholicity of his scientific tastes. Another was the

Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, the editing of whichwas to him, for half a century, a labour of love. Of all

the scientific journals I have encountered, it is the mostvaried and multifarious in its contents, and it was notedited by proxy. But the greatest proof of the broadview which Jameson took of the territory rightfully be-longing to Natural History, is to be found in the Museum


he collected at Edinburgh, where it remains a memorial

of him, and is every day receiving additions.

Of this Museum, and the peculiar attractions which it

had for Edward Forbes, we shall have much to say again.

At present it concerns us as marking, by the nature of its

contents, the condition in which Natural Histoiy was

when he recommenced study in Edinburgh. I had

known the Museum from boyhood, and would have been

glad to have known so delightful a place a great deal

better, but the charge of a shilling, which was then

exacted for admission, was often beyond the holiday re-

sources of a schoolboy s pocket. Still, I visited it suf-

ficiently often to know its general arrangements, some of

which yet remain unchanged. The larger vertebrates,

and especially the mammals, were well represented by

stuffed specimens. Of stuffed birds there was a large

and very fine collection;and in mineralogy, as might

have been expected from the tastes of the Professor, the

Museum was peculiarly rich. Of shells, there was a

goodly show, and of insects there was understood to be

a large collection, which was not usually displayed, as

light is highly destructive to the specimens. Fishes and

reptiles were represented, to some considerable extent,

by preserved and mounted skins, and there was a highly

interesting, though not very numerous assemblage, of the

skulls of different nations, which, however, was not open

to general inspection. Besides the objects enumerated,

there was the usual array of miscellaneous varieties,—the

tatooed head of a New Zealand chief, an Esquimaux

canoe, a narwhal’s horn, a brain coral, and much else,

scattered here and there through the Museum after a

1831. EDWARD FORBES. Ill

fashion which is fast being abandoned. Moreover, a

large number of specimens, in various departments of

Natural History, were unavoidably shut up in store-

rooms and cellars, from want of space to display them.

The Museum, however, could not but be considered as

tolerably ample in its dimensions.

The lower hall was almost entirely occupied by large

stuffed quadrupeds and other mammals. The upper

hall was devoted to mineralogy, and in part to birds, to

which also the greater part of the galleries was consigned.

The remaining objects were accommodated in side-rooms,

or disposed of in corners.

With all its defects it was a highly instructive

Museum, and Jameson made excellent use of it in illus-

trating his lectures. It was too much, however, regarded

by the Professor as an appendage to the lecture-room.

He resisted to the last throwing it open to the public,

and those who paid a fee for admission mto its halls, did

not find them so occupied, arranged, and placarded as to

make the Museum what if possible every museum should

be, a self-interpreting, illustrated series of treatises on the

various groups of objects it contains. Great deficiencies,

moreover, existed in it. None, perhaps, was more remark-

able, considering the splendour of the mineralogical collec-

tion, than that shown in the case of Geology. Some speci-

mens of rocks and fossils there were, but no series of illus-

trations representing the stratigraphical, paleontological,

or industrial relations of the several geological formations.

The student was not furnished with the means of fami-

liarizing his eye with the lithological or mineralogical

characters of even the igneous rocks, still less with those


of the sedimentary strata. No systematic collection ex-

isted of the fossils which so strikingly characterize the

majority of the aqueous rocks. Nor was there any

provision in the way of drawings, diagrams, models,

classified ores, slags, metals, and the like, to enable the

mining engineer to learn how and where to look for coal,

for limestone, black-band, or lead ore, and how to recog-

nise them when he encountered them.

It would be the height of folly to complain that these

geological desiderata, as yet but very partially possessed

by us, were not attained in any degree, quarter of a

century ago. Jameson could not have got them, what-

ever efforts he had made. Directly he perhaps made no

efforts, but indirectly he trained or influenced the men

who, like Edward Forbes, have changed our museums

from sepulchres, sacred to death and silence, into temples

where the Pythoness is always present, and always in-

spired, and the oracle is never ambiguous.

Mineralogy, even, the special glory of the Museum,

was represented solely by specimens in their natural con-

dition, which, however, were the finest attainable. Neither

the crystallographic, the optical, the chemical, or the in-

dustrial relations of minerals received any illustrations.

Great deficiencies also existed in the zoological depart-

ment. With the exception of insects, the invertebrate ani-

mals had no visible recognition in the collection, and the

millions of sea-creatures, of lower grade than fishes, which

Edward Forbes made his special study, were acknow-

ledged as worthy of admission only in so far as they left

behind them after death, shells of sea-marble or of mother-

of-pearl, which were as beautiful and as lasting as minerals.


Of no class of animals, moreover, high or low, was

there any series of specimens illustrating its internal

structure. Skeletons;separate organs and dissections of

important tissues preserved in spirits;enlarged models of

minute structures;microscopic sections

;diagrams and

drawings were almost totally wanting. In other words,

comparative anatomy was not regarded as an integral and

inseparable part of the zoological department of Natural

History, but was handed over to the human anatomist,

who fortunately in many cases accepted the transfer,

although in reality comparative anatomy was free alike

to the naturalist and the anatomist, but under the im-

perative restriction that each should cultivate the common

territory, or pay the penalty of seeing his own science

languish, if he did not.

In a word, the Natural History of Edward Forbes’s

novitiate and Professor Jamesons prime, was too much,

so far at least as taught, a science dealing only with ex-

ternal characters. The density, hardness, colour, lustre,

crystalline form, and one or two other sensible properties

of each mineral were carefully noted ; the chemical com-

position was recorded with little or no commentary, and

there the inquiry ended, and the mineral was assigned

its place in a system. The great majority of the animal

specimens were simply stufled skins. Of some creatures

there were only skeletons. Of a very few both the skin

and skeleton were preserved; but all that lay between

the integuments and the bones was unrepresented. In

the estimate even of the educated, the prevailing notion

of a naturalist was of one who knew by sight, and could

draw, describe, and classify a great number of rocks,

H


minerals, shells, plants, animals, and it might be also

clouds, auroras, mock suns, and other meteorological

phenomena. In the case of animals, it should be added

that the naturalist was understood to be largely familiar

with their habits during life, and, the older observers

were certainly as skilful at watching these as any of their

successors

No one of the great naturalists in reality belonged to

this skin-deep school. They knew that peculiar external

characters were the result or counterpart of peculiar in-

ternal structure. They knew that systems of classifica-

tion were to a great extent only matters of convenience,

and that they had a scientific value only in so far as they

recognised all the affinities, analogies, and relationships

which linked together the objects of classification. But

they felt this more fully than they expressed it, and the

majority of their hearers did not perceive that they felt

it at all.

It was plain that such a state of matters could not

last. Jameson begat a love of Natural History in his

students which could not be fed upon dried skins and

glass eyes, or arrangements of living creatures in artificial

groups as little true to nature, in many cases, as those in

which children rank the contents of a Noah’s ark. The

crisis was precipitated by the resolution of the Senatus

Academicus of the University of Edinburgh, soon after

Edward Forbes entered it, to make the study of Natural

History imperative on all who proposed to graduate in

medicine. This implied recognising Natural History as

a subject on which candidates for the title of Physician

should be examined by the Medical Faculty, and the


entire University thus became interested, and entitled

to interfere in settling the best mode of teaching the

science.

It would be doing Jameson great injustice to impute

to him any active opposition to the changes which now

began. Too advanced in years, and by nature too

strongly conservative, to be himself an active revolu-

tionist, he allowed others, such as Edward Forbes and

John Goodsir, to devote then’ zeal and genius to the

initiation of reforms which should gradually undergo

accomplishment. But though his sympathy was but

dryly expressed, and less wise innovators than these

favourite pupils received, instead of encouragement, only

a caustic hint to let well alone, he was no enemy to

progress. He had witnessed so many swift revolutions,

and so many silent progressive changes in science, that

to learn of a new one could not startle him. Neither

had he been a great discoverer whose fame was identified

with observations which later discoveries might dwarf

or eclipse, nor an extreme partisan who, for the sake of

his character for consistency, must uphold to the last

whatever views he had once maintained. An eclectic, not

a dogmatist;a critic and expositor, rather than an ori-

ginator; and a wide and diligent reader of the current

scientific literature, he had, all his fife long, been like one

afloat in a discovery-ship on a mighty unknown river.

Now there was swift sailing, and then long anchorages;

floatings back and forwards as the tides ebbed and flowed,

but no end to the voyage. The river grew wider andmore attractive as the vessel sailed on: and though

elderly passengers were constantly disembarking and


declaring that behind them was the Garden of Eden,

and before them a desolate wilderness, yet their places

were more than supplied by youthful adventurers for

whom the horizon was without a cloud, and all the

future full of smiles. The grave professor neither dis-

embarked, nor asked of the future more than of the past

;

he had voluntarily articled himself to the ship, and would

remain on board till he got his discharge. The expe-

riences of Jameson were indeed those of an Ancient

Mariner. In his early youth he had known Geology as

a territory belonging of right to the Sea-gods, and had

fought under Werner with failing fortunes, till Hutton

won for the Fire-gods one -half, if not more, of the dis-

puted territory. Then came a third set of claimants,

who professed to acknowledge both of the older ones,

but all the while mocked at Fire and Water as the

monarchs of the globe, and stole from each one half of

his territory, erecting a separate but professedly tributary

kingdom, which they called Palaeontology, and summoned

the spirits of all the dead plants and animals to defend.

He had seen the concrete crystallography of his early

days, which built up a great cube out of a multitude of

infinitesimally small ones, and acknowledged an infinity

of primary forms, replaced by an abstract scheme, deal-

ing in ideal axes, arranged in a very few sets or systems,

each of which supplied a sufficient scaffolding for a

number of geometrically related forms. The one optical

marvel of certain transparent minerals, that they refracted

light doubly, had grown under Ins eyes into a multitude

of marvels, as day by day the existence of optical as well

as geometric axes in transparent crystals, was more and


more clearly recognised, and tlieir power to polarize

light, and the action of polarized light upon them, were

brought into view.

As for the chemical characters and composition of

minerals, they had, if possible, assumed in his experience

still more novel aspects than either the crystallographic

or the optical. A reference indeed to Chemistry may

close this section. Jameson had heard the last dying

echoes of the battle between the partisans of the phlo-

giston and the antiphlogiston camp. He had long ended

his chemical studies before the names of Galvani and

Volta had been heard of in England, or the Voltaic

battery had been invented. The whole of Davy’s career

was within his cognizance. Dalton’s atomic theory

slowly struggled into acceptance under his eyes. Ber-

zelius revolutionized before him the entire chemical

department of Mineralogy. Mitscherlich established a

connexion between crystalline form and chemical com-

position;and Organic Chemistry changed from a crude

system of drug-making, into an elaborate storehouse of

essential bases, acids, and other principles, and became,

as we have seen under Botany, as perfect in its analyses

and system, as Inorganic Chemistry had already be-

come.

To one who had seen so many changes, what was one

more ? To one who had never witnessed rest, its post-

ponement was no surprise and no trial. The sciences

which make up Natural History had been, from the first

moment Jameson had known them, like so many armies

in the field,—now advancing, now cross-marching, nowbivouacking, now halting even for a long season in


winter quarters, but never retreating; while now one,

and then another, and sometimes several, formed them-

selves into movable columns, and struck across the

unknown region before them,—passing rivers held im-

passable, surmounting hills held insurmountable, and

permanently occupying new ground;

the old being

in part abandoned, in part marked by fortresses

and memorials, where trophies were preserved and

famous deeds commemorated. In these citadels the old

soldiers who were past campaigning found a resting-

place, and believed, or tried to believe, that all that

was worth fighting for had been won. But the veteran

of whom we speak, though his militant days were

over, followed the marching regiments in his litter, and

watched with keen interest the tactics of the young

generals. They took their own way, and he grimly or

graciously bade them God-speed. He encouraged his

younger colleague, James D. Forbes, in his beautiful and

elaborate researches on the glaciers. To him, Edward

Forbes dedicated the first-fruits of his explorations in

the sea;and John Goodsir consulted with him about

those investigations in Comparative Anatomy, which,

even in his student days, gave promise of the fruit they

are so richly producing.

Under a grave eclectic like this, Natural History

peacefully passed through a great crisis, and probably

underwent a much more equal development in all its

branches than it would have done under a more original

but more one-sided master.

If we look back for a moment at the characteristic

aspect of the pliasis through which the “Natural His-


tory sciences ” began to pass when Edward Forbes com-

menced their academic study, we shall find that the

chief transforming influences were exerted from two

centres of change. The one had reference mainly to

Vegetable and Animal Anatomy and Physiology, includ-

ing Botany and Zoology, and the palaeontological half

of Geology, or, in a word, Biology—the science of living

things—from man downwards to the smallest monad.

The other had reference to Chemistry, a peer of the

first rank in the kingdom of life;ruler of high degree

over every creature during its active existence, and a

judge from whom, in one vast department, there is no

appeal, when death has set his seal on each organism.

The inorganic half of Geology, and all Mineralogy, were

largely affected by both influences, but were likewise

under the control of special modifying agencies which

told less or more upon the Biological Sciences.

The one centre of change had for its effective weapon

the microscope— the revealer of structure

;

the other

the combustion tube—the revealer of organic chemical

composition. The former was the anatomist’s tool, the

latter the chemist’s; and both instruments, hi the hands

of these workmen, were at the service of all the Physical

Sciences which examined minute mechanical structure

or chemical composition.

The microscope was no unheard-of novelty. The

service it could render science had been demonstrated

by Robert Hooke, to mention no others, in his Micro-

grapliia, some two centuries ago. From that time down-ward, philosophers and artists had by happy discoveries

and inventions continually improved it, till it had be-


come a marvellous instrument. All the great observers

in Natural History were familiar with its use;and it

was in the hands of students like Edward Forbes or

John Goodsir, and regarded as an indispensable instru-

ment by them, years before it acquired the dominance

we are discussing. Nevertheless it was still an instru-

ment understood and handled by few, and by such was

regarded with much the same feelings as an enthusiastic

musician regards his Cremona violin, or as, till recently, a

sportsman would have regarded his Manton rifle. There

was no choice between a costly instrument, far beyond

the resources of most students;and a Birmingham toy,

which, useless for research, was the dearer instrument of

the two. Suddenly the microscope became the subj ect of a

series of improvements as numerous and thorough-going

as those the musket has undergone within the last very

few years. Solicited and encouraged by the naturalists

of all countries, and guided by the most accomplished

physicists of the day, the practical opticians of Italy,

Germany, France, and England, vied with each other in

raising the power and lowering the cost of the micro-

scope, till a good instrument was within the pecuniary

resources of every student. For ten pounds you could

procure a better instrument than fifty pounds would

have purchased a few years before, and for half the

latter sum, such an instrument as no money could have

procured shortly before. The effect of these improve-

ments rapidly appeared. Within ten years of Edward

Forbes’s arrival in Edinburgh, the army of microscopists

which in the interval had come upon the field, had

turned their weapons to so good account, that they had


won a territory entirely to themselves, and men heard

with surprise of a new science called Histology, literally,

“ the Science of Tissues,” more fully, “ the microscopic

exposition of the minute structural peculiarities of plants

and animals.” The Continental physiologists soon in-

troduced the systematic instruction of their pupils in

the use of the microscope, and, in 1841, similar classes

were commenced in Edinburgh by Dr. John Hughes

Bennett, a fellow-student and intimate friend of Edward

Forbes.1

The microscope has now become the fashion. It is

an indispensable article of furniture in a physician’s con-

sulting-room, whether he uses it or not ;and under a

glass shade is as graceful as a time-piece. Nor is the

fashion one which will soon pass away. Neither physi-

cian nor physicist of any class can afford to ignore it, so

wondrously has its employment enlarged the boundaries

of every science which deals with visible structure. It

is needless to notice here that the eye only sees what it

brings the power to see, whether naked or armed with a

microscope. The tools are nothing without the skilful

hand to handle them. But an improved tool improves

the skill of the hand, and here also of the eye which, to-

gether with the hand, uses it. The trained hand and eye

soon perceive how their common tool may be made more

1 Dr. Bennett, now Professor of the

Institutes of Medicine in the University

of Edinburgh, lias the merit, if I mis-

take not, of having introduced the prac-

tical study of Histology into Great Bri-

tain. His first course of instructions,

given when he and I were extra-acade-

mical lecturers in the Medical School,

Edinburgh, was delivered in my lecture-

room, which I placed at his disposal,

knowing that a first course of an unheard-

of science must prove unremunerative.

Histology was then as much a verbuvi

insolens as at a later period Technologywas found to be. In both cases, Greeklexicons were opened and closed, with-

out making those who opened themalmost anything the wiser.


perfect, and the tool thus further perfected trains themto a higher skill. This in its turn realizes a still moreperfect tool

;and so acting and re-acting on each '

other,

the microscope and the microscopist have brought us

to our present advancement, where ten years reveal

more of the laws of structure, growth, development,

form, progressive change and ultimate decay, than ten

centuries did before. The words Histology and Mor-

phology refer only to the services of the microscope

to organic nature, but there is a wondrous inorganic

microcosm also, where already it has reaped rich har-

vests, and where far richer ones await reaping.

The organic combustion-tube is a much less familiar

instrument than the microscope. The laws of light which

determine the construction of the latter, were known long

before the nature of the chemical elements, and their

modes of combination which determine the methods of

chemical analysis, were discovered. The same Kobert

Hooke, who in the seventeenth century saw so fully the

value of the microscope, had a clear glimpse, along with

many of his contemporaries, of the combustion of an

organic substance as the way of analysing it. Tradition

reports that in an earlier age, Sir Walter Kaleigh illus-

trated this practically before Queen Elizabeth, making

what a modern chemist would call a quantitative analysis

of a pipeful of tobacco which he smoked in her presence;

but if in truth the story be trustworthy, it only shows

that Sir Walter had not forgotten what as a student he

had read in Aristotle.

Organic chemical analysis as now practised, cannot

date farther back than the period when water was dis-


covered to be a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, and

carbonic acid to be a compound of carbon and oxygen

;

and these discoveries were not fully realized and appre-

ciated till the very close of the eighteenth century. It

then became possible to analyse all vegetable and animal

substances which consisted only of carbon and hydrogen,

or of these and oxygen also;

for the carbon could all be

burned into carbonic acid, and the hydrogen could all be

burned into water, and from the weight of carbonic acid

and of water, yielded by a given weight of organic sub-

stance when burned in oxygen, the weight of carbon and

of hydrogen, contained in the compounds thus yielded,

could always be calculated;whilst, where oxygen also

was present, it was represented by the difference between

the sum of the hydrogen and carbon, and the weight of

substance originally burned. The principle thus estab-

lished, was soon and successfully applied to the analysis

of gases, such as the carburetted-hydrogens produced by

heating wood, coal, wax, and oil, but it was found im-

mensely more difficult to apply it to these substances,

even when they consisted of the same ingredients as the

gases derived from them, which were so easily analysed.

It was equally difficult to apply the principle to the simi-

lar compounds which abound in plants and animals

;

and the more complex combinations were totally beyond

ordinary analytical reach.

There were chemists, indeed, of genius and skill

sufficient to master all these difficulties. Berzelius in

Sweden;Gay-Lussac and Chevreul in France

; Faraday

and Trout in England; and Walter Crum in Scotland,

had each succeeded, by methods of his own, in analysing


the most complex organic compounds. But they de-

manded time. You must not hurry them. The processes

were delicate : many precautions were necessary;the

utmost care could not prevent frequent failure; you

must allow yourself days for the analysis of a single sub-

stance. To this requirement none could object. Aninaccurate analysis is not an analysis at all. But if each

organic body were to consume days in its analysis, at

what rate of progress would the millions of vegetable

and animal substances be analysed ?

Ingenious arithmeticians were spared the trouble of

calculating this question. A few modifications of the

apparatus already devised, a few additions to its simple

machinery, one or two substitutions of one material for

another, and a great reduction of the scale on which the

apparatus was made and worked, removed every diffi-

culty. But very simple as the changes seemed to be, it

took much experience and skill and genius to effect

them. They were owing to the chemists already named,

and, in addition, to younger men, among whom none

will grudge a pre-eminence to Dumas of Paris, Mulder

of Utrecht, and Mitscherlich of Berlin;but beyond all

question they were mainly due to Liebig of Giessen,

where he made them, now of the world.

With his combustion-tube, the analysis of an organic

compound became, from a work of days, a work of hours,

and by and by, a work of minutes. Before the first

decade of Edward Forbes’s student fife had ended,

Liebig’s earliest work on Agricultural Chemistry, com-

missioned by the British Association, was laid before it

at its meeting in Glasgow (1840), and from that date


the power of organic chemistry to alter and extend the

organismal sciences, was felt and acknowledged by all.

Of the more practical medical sciences it is not

necessary to say much. With Anatomy, Chemistry, and

Physiology rapidly transforming themselves, they could

not possibly stand still. They were also, however, assist-

ing themselves. The physician, including the surgeon,

had come to stand in so important a relation to the judge,

as the detector of the cause of death in doubtful cases,

the appraiser of the effect of injuries on the living frame,

the discriminator between sanity and insanity, the chief

witness in cases of alleged infanticide, and the decider

of legitimacy of birth—besides otherwise assisting in

deciding questions of civil and criminal law—that a new

branch of science was recognised, linking Medicine and

Law together, as its alternative titles, Medical Jurisprud-

ence and Forensic Medicine, imply. A chair of Medical

Jurisprudence had been established in Edinburgh, in

1807, and was occupied when Edward Forbes joined the

University, by Dr. Christison, who had filled it since

1822 with great distinction. In particular, he brought

his extensive acquaintance with chemistry, and skill in

analysis, to bear on the important subject of Toxicology,

and so simplified and improved the methods for detect-

ing poisons by devices of his own, as well as by judicious

adoption of those introduced by the ablest toxicologists,

that the fraction of a grain of arsenic, or one drop of

prussic acid, could be unequivocally detected and iden-

tified. It soon came about that, whereas lawyers anddoctors had equally shrunk from poisoning-cases as

always unsatisfactory to deal with, Toxicology became,

12G MEMOIR OF CHAP. IV.

so far at least as the question of administration of poison

was concerned, the most certain department of Medical

Jurisprudence. A student of a few weeks’ training will

now unhesitatingly decide, after some hours’ trial,

whether a suspected substance contains an appreciable

quantity of arsenic or not; but till Orfila and Chris-

tison, and their successors, found out the way, the most

accomplished physicians were often at fault.

In 1832,Dr. Christison was transferred to the chair

of Materia Medica, which, including in its wide province

dietetics and medicaments, could not but be specially

affected by the new light which Chemistry afforded in

reference to the composition of food and of drugs, and

was certain to gain by its transference to one who could

bring a large acquaintance with Botany, and great accom-

plishment and skill as a chemist, to supplement his expe-

rience as a physician.

In his hands the subject of Materia Medica soon

became one of the most attractive to students. Amuseum, still in many respects unrivalled, was by in-

defatigable exertion furnished, step by step, with illus-

trative specimens. Many of these were botanical, a few

mineral, gathered from all quarters of the globe. Alarge number were chemical, and were chiefly prepared

in the laboratory attached to the lecture-room, where,

assisted by some of the more zealous lovers of chemistry

among the students, the Professor spent many hours each

day in chemical research.

As one of these assistants, I speak from personal ex-

perience to the profound impression of a mighty change

passing over Medicine as an administratrix of substances,

1S31. EDWARD FORBES. 12*7

which in one sense are food, in another medicine, in

another poison, which my daily laboratory work made

upon me. Together with a gifted fellow-student and

fellow-chemist, the late Samuel Brow, I often, as we

watched a process, wondered at the changes which our-

selves had witnessed, and with the hopefulness and con-

fidence of youth, echoed the prediction that these were

but the first-fruits of a far more wondrous harvest which

should yet be gathered. And if we looked sometimes in

the wrong direction for the harvest, and the fields are

still barren which we thought would first have grown

green, deserts have blossomed in other quarters where

we had no hope of a flower. In our most sanguine

dreams we never entertained the prospect of a whole

new class of remedies being introduced, under the title

of Anaesthetics, or foresaw what mercy was in store for

mankind, in ether and chloroform. But a walk round

the Materia Meclica Museum, or a day’s work in the

associated laboratory, was enough to awake wonder and

boundless hope. Instead of the pounds of cinchona saw-

dust which the patient had formerly to swallow before

his ague could be cured, a few grains of silky, white

crystals of quinine were found sufficient to dispel the

fever. Poppy-juice, instead of being dried up into a

confused mixture of acids, alkaloids, gum, resin, caout-

chouc, and many other compounds, constituting a capri-

cious soporific of uncertain strength, was subjected to an

orderly analysis. Under skilful hands the dark-coloured,

heavy- smelling opium resolved itself into colourless,

odourless crystals of many different kinds, one of which—morphia—concentrated in itself, as its name implies,


the chief, if not the entire, sleep-producing, anodyne

virtues of the opium. The purified salts of this, far less

liable than the crude drug to disagree with the patient,

could be weighed to the fraction of a grain, and ad-

ministered in the most nicely-proportioned dose to the

wakeful, agonized sufferer. The poppy had betrayed a

long-kept secret. In every medicinal plant there was an

essence or quintessence, small in quantity, but in which

lay the whole therapeutic virtues of the plant. Extract

that, and there remained so much hay and shavings or

saw-dust. You had washed the sands of a gold river

;

the grains of gold were few in number, but you had

them all;the sand retained no trace of metal.

By distillation;by treatment with an alkali ; by

treatment with an acid;by crystallization

;by one or

all of these processes, or by others, the essential oil, or

alkaloid, or acid, or neutral principle, on which the

medicinal powers of each plant depended, was extracted

and purified. New tonics, narcotics, anti-spasmodics,

anaesthetics, and the like, were presented to the phy-

sician in forms so pure and concentrated, that of many

a single drop, or the fraction of a grain, was an ample,

nay, a perilous dose. The scientific pharmaceutical

chemist, however, did not stop here. He put the ques-

tion to himself;might not some of these potent mor-

phias, strychnias, quinias, which as yet we can procure

only by extracting them from plants in which they occur

ready formed, be produced artificially ? What, for ex-

ample, if we could manufacture that precious febrifuge,

quinine, from some of the comparatively cheap sub-

stances resembling it in composition, instead of obtain-

1S3J. EDWARD FORBES. 129

ing it at great cost and labour from the bark of foreign

trees brought across the seas ?

The possibility of achieving this was no vain imagi-

nation. Already we could produce, from inorganic

ingredients, the prussic acid which renders the bitter

almond and the laurel leaf poisonous, and supply it

pure and concentrated in any quantity. We could from

similar ingredients produce substances as complex as

quinine, and resembling it in many properties. There

was here a still more exciting and attractive prospect

than that which the extraction of ready-formed quint-

essences furnished. How vastly enhanced must the re-

sources of the healing art become, when the chemist

could produce morphia without help from the poppy,

and strychnia without having recourse to nux vomica !

In the quarter century that has passed since these hopes

were first awakened in the Edinburgh students of 1830,

they have been unexpectedly fulfilled. Now that wecan produce artificially, and from waste and even noisome

materials, the ethereal liquids to which the fragrance of

the pear, the pine-apple, and the melon are due;and

can manufacture “ spirits of wine” from coal gas and

oil of vitriol, we can scarcely be over sanguine as to what

we shall yet effect, as competitors with living organisms,

in the production of certain compounds.

This, however, was not all. Besides extracting the

quintessences which Nature had so diligently hidden anddiluted through the mass of each medicinal plant, as well

as infringing, or, as it were, breaking Nature’s patent for

manufacturing them, might it not be possible to produce

compounds which, though no plant yielded them, and for

i


manufacturing them none guarded a secret or claimed

a patent, were nevertheless as powerful in their action

as any natural acid, alkaloid, or oil ? In reality the

question had been practically answered for centuries.

For what were alcohol, sulphuric ether, or acetic acid,

but artificial organic compounds, produced, at least at

second-hand, without the help of organisms ? In this

direction, however, we had hitherto done very little.

Nearly all our mineral medicines, and especially the most

potent ones, were, like the preparations of lead, antimony,

mercury, and arsenic, products of the laboratory, but the

reverse was the case with the remedies derived from the

vegetable and animal kingdoms. Now it became appa-

rent from the triumphs of the purely scientific chemist,

that the manufacture of organic compounds was a much

more easy process than we had imagined, and that we

could not fail to produce novel substances possessed of

the most energetic physiological action. Chloroform, in

the meanwhile, is by far the most striking example of this

that can be referred to. Those, however, who are fami-

liar with the remarkable properties of the novel so-called

organic metals, containing arsenic, antimony, and tin;

of the similar compounds containing phosphorus;of the

new ammonia-bases and related bases ;and of the end-

less“substitution ” compounds, every day swelling the

list of organic bodies,—will not doubt that there are as

many new medicines as there are new groups of chemical

combinations.

All this was dawning on us in the 1830 decade,

filling us with boundless hope. The spirit of the al-

chemists was in us, but we had realized that it was not


an elixir of life, but an elixir of health that we had to

seek. Death we cannot vanquish, but suffering we may.

Many a sharp skirmish there must be with pain;and

with “ all the drowsy syrups of the world,” and all the

anaesthetic Lethes, we must, at every cost, “ steep the

senses in forgetfulness.” But our ideal man is not a

dreamy, painless, lotos-eater, but a stalwart athlete, who

can endure hardness, and whom we would help to the

possession and conservation of a sound mind in a sound

body. Die he shall, but whilst he lives we shall try, by

wisely chosen food, and drink, and medicine, to make his

life long, and his labours abundant;and his death shall

be the peaceful lying down to slumber of the healthfully

tired child, before whom there is the prospect of a bliss

ful morn and a happy awaking.

The most practical, nominally, of all the branches

of Medicine, namely Practice of Physic, was not less

characterized at this period than its sister sciences and

arts, by a new weapon and index of progress. If Bio-

logical Science had its later development sufficiently

indicated by the one instrument, the microscope, and

Chemistry its later development sufficiently indicated

by the one instrument, the combustion-tube, Practice of

Physic had laid its hand on the stethoscope, invented

by the ingenious drench physicians, and in two or three

years could train the novice to distinguish diseases of

the chest with an accuracy and rapidity, such as the

experience of forty years had often failed to bring to

the unweaponed physician.

In 1832, the stethoscope was still upon trial. The


general public had scarcely heard of it. When ladies

chanced in church to notice it stretched for convenience

of stowage within the hat of some doctor, they set it

down as a hat-stretcher, and its possessor as a fop.

When I entered the Infirmary in 1833,

the younger

physicians were still shaking great bottles partially filled

with different liquids, to ascertain the cause of those

murmurs and ominous rattles which the stethoscope,

when applied to the chest, reveals and bids us interpret.

This was a rational and instructive proceeding, to which,

among other things, we are indebted for the skill which

has characterized the Edinburgh stethoscopists; but it

was followed only by the younger or middle-aged men.

The seniors, suddenly called upon to train their ears,

dulled by time, to the discrimination of an apparent

wilderness of sounds, shook then- heads and stood silent

aloof. Here and there, one or two bolder than their

brethren mocked at the novel instrument. Conspicuous

among these was the late Dr. James Hamilton, prede-

cessor in the Edinburgh Chair of Obstetrics of the

introducer of chloroform,-—a sagacious, skilful physician,

witty withal, and in many respects accomplished.

The stethoscope of his day was a cylinder of mahogany,

a foot and a half long, with a canal running down the

centre in the direction of its length. Afterwards, this

somewhat unwieldy instrument was replaced by the short

narrow tube, resembling a small clarionet without side

holes, and with a flat ear-piece, which is now in use, and

was readily enough mistaken for a hat-stretcher when seen

inside a hat. Dr. Hamilton used yearly to amuse him-

self, and still more his class, by producing a stethoscope


as big as a pastry-cook’s rolling-pin, and observing with

mock gravity, rapidly changing into sarcastic laughter,

“ that some gentlemen professed to be able to hear

through a stick the stick thus judged was thereafter

derisively flung on the lecture-table.

It is difficult to believe that such a judgment was,

less than thirty years ago, pronounced ex cathedra on

the stethoscope. That it was, is the best proof I can

offer of the swift change which was passing over even

those departments of Medicine which are supposed to

gain only by many successive experimental additions.

It is years already, since, putting aside purely medical

circles, the thoroughly practical managers of our life

insurance offices, desirous to enrol those only for whomlongevity might reasonably be anticipated, realized what

assistance the stethoscope could render them in weeding

out the bad lives from the good. Every day, in the

hands of those skilled in its use, it detects not only the

wilful, but also the unintentional deceiver, whose heart

or lungs have not yet revealed to himself the frailty

which they could not conceal from the physician’s in-

quisitorial ear.

I will not connect Surgery with any of its more

positive instruments. It will be more agreeable to un-

professional readers to think of it in connexion with one

of its least appalling armamenta,namely, the anesthetic

inhaler, which, reversing the usual law of development

in machines, has passed from great complexity into

nothing more elaborate than the fold of a handkerchief

or the corner of a towel.

Anesthesia, as now brought about by surgeons, had

134 MEMOIR OF CITAP. IV.

not been dreamed of in 1 . 833,nor is its induction strictly

speaking an act of surgery, but a preparation for one.

The Hospital, also, rather than the University, is the

proper arena of the surgeon. It may suffice, therefore,

to say, that the fame of the Edinburgh surgeons had

never been higher than when Edward Forbes began his

medical studies there. An entirely new Surgical Hospital

had just been completed, where students, from all parts

of the world, witnessed men like Liston and Syme per-

form operations unheard of before, such as only the

boldest and most skilful dare attempt, and only the

most experienced and sagacious could conduct to a suc-

cessful issue. On this point I do not dilate;but it

must not be forgotten that Surgery, no less than the

other branches of Medicine, was stirring with fresh

vigour during the whole period of Edward Forbes’s

medical noviciate.

In concluding this prolonged sketch, I would dwell

emphatically on two points

—

1st, The great scientific

revolution which in less than thirty years has come over

the medical studies of Edinburgh, was not owing to

Edinburgh having been behind the other medical schools

of the country twenty-five years ago. On the other

hand, I am not afraid to say, that no British school had

precedence of her in either the science or the practice of

Medicine. 2d, This revolution proceeded at Edinburgh

with a silent, unobserved, continuous rapidity, because

the old did not hinder it, and the young did not pre-

cipitate it.

There was abundance of rivalry, and no want of the

odium modicum ; but the scientific strifes and profes-


sional rivalries were almost entirely between peers and

equals, not between seniors and juniors. The seniors

often furnished little encouragement, and the juniors

often presumed too much, but both gave and took, and

they succeeded in striking a happy mean.

Nearly all the present Professors of Medicine hi

Edinburgh were the favourite pupils or former assistants

of their predecessors, or of their senior professors. In

this relation Edward Forbes stood to Professor Jameson;

John Goodsir to Professor Monro;Professor Balfour to

Professor Graham;Dr. Simpson to Professor Thomson

;

the present writer to Professor Christison. To this

friendly co-operation between the enthusiastic, specu-

lative younger men, and their more cautious, critical

seniors, is greatly owing the unbroken and silent pro-

gress which Physical Science underwent in Edinburgh

within quarter of a century. It was fortunate for

Edward Forbes that he entered its University when the

unceasing Athenian longing “for something new” was

about, like a green perennial, to show the fulness of its

vitality by bursting into flower.

CHAPTER V.

A YEAR OF STUDENT LIFE IN EDINBURGH.

The Medical School of Edinburgh, of which EdwardForbes now became a pupil, consisted of two dissimilar,

and, in some respects, antagonistic bodies. The one of

these was the University, more especially as represented

by the Professors who constituted its Medical Faculty.

The other, constituting as a whole the extra-academical

Medical School of the city, was composed of Fellows

of the Royal College of Surgeons and of the College

of Physicians, who availed themselves of a privilege of

Fellowship which entitled them to lecture publicly on

any branch of Medicine .

1

Avoiding all details which do not bear upon our

subject, it must be noticed that to the University be-

longed the privilege of conferring the degree of Doctor

of Medicine, and of educating for that degree ; besides

i In addition to Fellows of the Col-

leges, properly qualified persons, not

members of the medical profession, were

allowed to lecture to students of Medi-

cine on Natural Philosophy, and a simi-

lar privilege was afterwards conceded

to lecturers on Chemistry. As the first

teacher of Chemistry who profited by

this concession, I owe a debt of grati-

tude to the Royal College of Surgeons

of Edinburgh, which, even in passing, I

am bound heartily to acknowledge.

This concession implied, on their part,

losing the comparatively large fees

which otherwise a chemist would have

paid them to obtain, as Fellow, the right

to lecture, whilst in addition they con-

ferred on him the right to receive fees

from students, and accepted his tickets

and certificates as entitling their bearers

to examination for the diploma of the

College.

1831. MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. 137

the right of educating for the title of Surgeon, which,

however, it could not confer. The College of Surgeons,

on the other hand, possessed the privilege of conferring

the diploma of Surgeon, and the extra-academical school

mainly supplied the instruction required by candidates

for that title. The University was thus a school for phy-

sicians;the extra-academical lecture-rooms a school for

surgeons. For Edward Forbes, who wished a physicians

degree, attendance on the University was imperative ;

but as he did not desire a surgeon s diploma, it was not

incumbent on him to attend any class beyond the

College walls. Like most students of his time, how-

ever, he attended many of them.

The title “ Extra-Academical Medical School/’ did not

imply any association or corporation of united lecturers.

It was merely a collective term for all the teachers of

Medicine who were not professors, and whose lectures

did not qualify for the University medical degree. In

one respect the extra-academical teachers were rivals of

the University, which shared their privilege of educating

for the College of Surgeons’ diploma, without dividing

with them the right of educating for the University

medical degree. In another respect they were rivals of

each other, for there was no limit to the number of

teachers, except that furnished by the Fellows of the

Colleges, so that on each branch of medical science there

were generally two lecturers; on the more important

branches—as Anatomy, Chemistry, and Surgery—three;

on the last, sometimes four. The explanation of this

lay mainly in the fact, that for a multitude of profes-

sional purposes a surgical diploma was sufficient, and for

138 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. V.

most public medical appointments was essential, whilst a

physician s degree was not.

In 1831, accordingly, when the number of medical

schools throughout the countrywas very much smaller than

it is now, the Edinburgh Extra-Academical School was

large and flourishing. Men of great, though various, ability

were teaching the several medical sciences. On a single

subject the student had his choice of two, three, or four

lecturers;and on subjects such as Anatomy and Surgery,

where prolonged attendance was required, nearly every

pupil enrolled himself in successive years under different

teachers. Edward Forbes followed the general example.

No letters of this date have reached me, but the note-

book already referred to as chronicling his first London

journey, contains an obscurely dated cash-account of his

expenses during his first year in Edinburgh, which is

sufficiently precise on the matter before us. In the second

week of November, he takes out Dr. Knox’s extra-

academical class of Anatomy, and within the University,

Dr. Hope’s class of Chemistry, and Dr. Duncan’s class of

Materia Medica. One significant entry sums up these

dorno-sO

COLLEGE AND PROFESSIONAL.

Matriculation Fee, . . . . £0 10 0

Museum Fee, . . . . • 110Dr. Knox’s Lectures, . . . . 3 5 0

,,Practical An

,. . . . 3 5 0

Dr. Hope’s Chemistry Class, . . . 4 8 0

Dr. Knox’s text-hooks, . . . . 1 10 0

Dr. Duncan’s Materia Medica, . . . 4 8 G

Dr. Duncan’s text-hook, . . . . 0 1G 0

Dr. Hope’s ditto, . . . . • 0 18 0

£20 0 6 1

1 The error in the summation occurs

in the original note-book, and is emi-

nently characteristic of Forbes’s arith-

metic.


From this and similar entries it appears that, like

most medical students, he devoted the first winter to

Anatomy and Chemistry, and that, unlike most, he at-

tended also Materia Medica, from which he could not

possibly profit at that stage of his studies, besides tak-

ing out the ticket of admission to the Natural Histoiy

Museum, a proceeding which speaks for itself. Of his

studies in the Materia Medica I know nothing ;but it

is certain that he devoted himself with great zeal to

Anatomy and Chemistry ;and that he made abundant

and most profitable use of the Museum ticket does not

demand formal proof. Medicine as a profession he by

and by abjured;but even if his devotion to Zoology

had not made Anatomy a welcome study, he could not

have failed to listen with delight to such prelections as

the eloquent Dr. Knox was at this time delivering to a

crowded circle of delighted hearers. Long after, when

his old teacher had paid the penalty which his sneering,

satirical, Ishmaelitish spirit had long been provoking,

Edward Forbes reluctantly pointed out, that the neglect

and obscurity into which he had fallen were the fruits of

his own, not of others misdoings. But no one would have

been more forward than he to acknowledge that, with

all his faults, Dr. Knox was a man of genius, the sub-

tlety, suggestiveness, and ingenuity of whose anatomical

and physiological speculations were peculiarly fitted to

attract and fix the attention of students whose intel-

lectual sympathies were large and free. To Edwardhimself, moreover, the daring wit and humour, and the

unsparing satire of the lecturer, were additional causes

of interest in him. "We cannot wonder then, that not

140 MEMOIR OF CHAP. V.

content with attending the lectures of Dr. Knox, which

were enough in the way of Anatomy for a beginner, he

also joined his practical class, which implied the direct

handling of the dead body in the dissecting-room.

Chemistry could not fail to be interesting to one

who was an eager student of mineralogy. In after life

Edward Forbes did not receive credit for the interest

he took in this science. But it is quite certain that it

delighted him from the first, and the number of chemists

whom he counted among his most intimate friends

showed that the interest remained to the last. In recur-

ring to his student days, he repeatedly mentioned to Mrs.

Forbes, who was my informant on the matter, that few

tilings had vexed him more than his absence, through

indisposition, from Dr. Hope’s class on a day when the

roll was called. He was marked absent, and nothing

would induce the Professor, who was by no means ac-

commodating to students, to qualify the entry. To a

friend1also, who has recorded the fact, he mentioned that

“ he had gone through a practical course of Chemistry

with a fellow-student, employing apparatus bought with

their common funds. At the conclusion he hesitated

whether to take up Chemistry or Natural History as his

prominent pursuit, and, agreeing to refer the matter to

chance, they ‘ tossed up’ for the apparatus, and the ad-

verse throw by which he lost the chemicals confirmed

him in adhering to the latter science.” His good genius

certainly presided over this “toss up,” for he never would

have achieved in Chemistry what he effected in Natural

i Fraser's Magazine, January 1855; misinformed, his former colleague at the

Art. “ Edward Forbes.” The writer of Museum of Economic Geology, Professor

this pleasing sketch was, if I am not Warrington Smyth.

1831-32 EDWARD FORBES. 141

History, but the incident shows how loving a disciple of

the former science he was.

In the studies thus named, the first winter passed

away;but it will be convenient to trace them formally

onwards to the close of the summer which completed the

session, before considering the spirit in which they were

pursued, and the fruits which they yielded.

Our chief guide in this inquiry is the “ cash account"'

for the first nine months spent in Edinburgh, which is

kept with great regularity, but with equal conciseness

and brevity. As in London, we have neither year nor

month;but the dates of the latter are given, and the

initials of the days of the week. We are curiously

helped also, in keeping the chronicle of the weeks

square, by the Sunday always appearing as thus,

“S. 4.—Church, £0 0 6,” which signifies that on

Sunday, 4th December 1831, Edward Forbes put, as

they phrase it hi Scotland, sixpence into the plate at the

church-door, or as some may better understand it, con-

tributed that sum to the offertory. Similar entries,

varied only by the sum occasionally rising to a shilling,

occur throughout the account, and mark how regular a

church-goer the writer then was.

Following this guide, we find that on the 13th of

December he joins the Physical Society. The next day

he purchases a hammer and a botanical box. The day

after he acquires certain “chemical instruments/’ and

two days later his hand is again in his pocket to purchase“ minerals.” These outlays seem to have contented himfor a time, but in January (1832) he returns to the

purchase of minerals, “ Jameson’s Mineralogy,” “ chemi-


cals,” and “ instruments,” which were probably chemical

apparatus. In the middle of February (16th), we come

again upon a purchase of instruments, but this time they

were plainly anatomical dissective knives, for the next

entry runs, “ W. 17.—Leg, £2 0 0 so that he has

paid £2 for the lower limb of a subject, and we are to

suppose him busy at intervals dissecting it, under the

superintendence of Dr. Knox, whose rooms (now demo

lished) are in Surgeon Square. It does not, however,

engross his attention, for on the 20th he purchases a

“spood,” or botanical spade, and on the 25th, “shells.”

In March he makes further purchases in minerals, ac-

quires “painting materials,” makes a journey to Roslin,

and procures another botanical box. April witnesses

additional outlay on shells, the purchase of a geological

bag, and a journey to Peebles, which followed the close

of the winter session.

May is fitly inaugurated by a dredging expedition,

and thereafter he enters formally on the study of Natural

History, as the foliowhig entry on the 9th of the month,

which, it appears, was a Wednesday, shows

W. 9.—Graham, £4 9 0

Jameson, . . . . • 4 8 0

Books—Richard, .• • • 0 12 0

Hooker, . . . - 0 10 0

Reid, . . . • 3 3 0

£13 2 0

Pie thus joined the University class of Botany under

Professor Graham, and that of Natural History under

Professor Jameson. The last entry doubtless refers to

his attendance on Dr. D. B. Reid’s class of Practical

Chemistry, taught beyond the University halls. He pur-


chases, it will be observed, two text-books on Botany,

but he has no occasion to purchase any on Natural

History.

From this time the cash-account is kept less regu

larly, and it stops abruptly on the 1st June. The only

entries of any interest are Is. 7d. for a “dredge, and 2s.

for “ insects.” Once for all, I may state that the ordinary

references of this Journal are to household expenses, and

the smaller charges of everyday life.

I have been thus minute because of no later year

have we so full a record, imperfect though that given

may be, and I am specially desirous that the reader

should have the means of forming his own estimate of

the character of Edward Forbes in his early years. Weare not left, however, to interpret this from materials so

inadequate as the meagre skeleton which the laconic

cash-account supplies. The voices of friends who knew

him in his student-days can clothe the skeleton for us,

and make it a breathing, living thing. Let us listen to

two of them. John Goodsir, the present distinguished

Professor of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh,

who, in virtue of similarity of genius and of tastes,

exerted a greater intellectual influence over Edward

Forbes than any other of his associates, was the first

friend he made in Edinburgh, as by a mournful coincid-

ence he was the last to leave his death- bed, twenty-five

years later.

Young Forbes, soon after his arrival in Edinburgh,

found his way into Dr. Knox’s dissecting-room. Theusual crowd of students who haunted it were absent at

lecture, hospital, or elsewhere, and the living were repre-


sented only by Mr. Goodsir, who was busy in a comer,

as lie tells me, dissecting a “ head.” The tall stranger

walked up to him;they soon got into earnest conversa-

tion, and found that they had many tastes in common.The fascination which Forbes exerted over all he cameacross did not fail on this occasion, and within a few

days Mr. Goodsir visited his new friend at his lodgings.

He had lost no time in exploring the neighbourhood.

Round the room were scattered the novel plants and

animals he had already encountered. The ledges of the

wainscot were covered with minerals, which could not

be accommodated on the table, littered as it was with

MSS. and note-books. He had already climbed Arthur’s

Seat, and been delighted by finding a kind of snail new

to him;specimens of this were before him, which, with

a view to study their structure, he had boiled, the notion

of dissecting a raw snail being quite strange to him.

Mr. Goodsir interposed, advised the omission of boiling,

and gave the future great malacologist his first lesson in

dissecting mollusca .

1 This tribe of animals, known to

1 1 have often heard Forbes, who loved

a joke against himself, laughingly refer

to the episode of the boiled snails;hut

it marked an era in his knowledge as he

showed in many ways. The Rev. H.

Wardrop, who attended his lectures at

Edinburgh in 1854, tells me that when

he took his class to Arthur Seat in Mayof that year, he directed their special

attention to the snail in question, which

belongs to the genus Clciusilia. Dr.

Spencer Cobbold, who also heard these

lectures, adds that Forbes frequently

drew the outline of its shell on the black

board before the class, as if it were a

favourite with him. The particular

species found on Arthur’s Seat is, I be-

lieve, Clausilia nigricans. It is scarcely

half an inch in length, spindle-shaped

and spiral, with some ten whorls. The

name of the genus is taken from the

clausium or valve which occupies the

mouth or throat of the shell.

The characters of this genus of mol-

lusca are thus described by Messrs.

Forbes and Hanley :—“ Clausilia—shell

spiral, produced elongato-fusifonn, al-

most always semirostral;aperture ellip-

tic or pear-shaped, always toothed and

closed in its throat by a testaceous, elas-

tic, folded lamellarvalve or clausium. . .

.

“ The shells of this genus are equally

remarkable for the peculiarities of their

shape, and for the curious opercular

valve of their apertures. The majority

of species are centralized in south-eastern


naturalists as the pulmoniferous or lung-bearing mollusca,

were as great favourites with him as their congeners the

lungless sea slugs and molluscs on which he laboured so

much. A few years later he communicated to the British

Association a report on their distribution in Europe,1 and

the next year another still more elaborate report on their

range through the British Islands.2 The lesson in snail-

dissecting, accordingly, we may be sure, had a growing

significance for Edward Forbes as the years went on,

and he became one of the greatest authorities regarding

mollusca. He seems, as I have indicated in a note, to

have entertained a peculiar regard for the clausilia, which

thousands have climbed Arthur’s Seat without discover-

ing, and most of whom, had it been put in their hands,

would have flung it away as an insignificant periwinkle.

If, however, Edward Forbes was delighted to find

in the grave, gentle friend he had made, a self-taught,

widely-accomplished, comparative anatomist, John Good-

sir was not less struck with the genius and accomplish-

ments of the self-taught naturalist, who had so frankly

sought his acquaintance. Referring to this interview

and the friendship which followed, Mr. Goodsir says

—

“ When beginning his studies in Edinburgh in 1831,

Mr. Forbes had already made great advances in his

favourite scientific pursuits, and to these attainments he

added remarkable artistic powers, and literary acquire-

ments of an extraordinary extent in one so young. . . .

He was pre-eminently a naturalist. His attention had

Europe. A History of British Mol- i Report Brit. Assoc, for 1838, sect.lusca and their Shells, by Professor p. 112.Edward Forbes and Sylvanus Hanley, 2 Report Bril. Assoc, for 1839. P.B.A., vol. iv. p. 116. 127.

146 MEMOIR OE CIIAP. V.

never been exclusively directed to any one of the natu

ral sciences. He was equally a botanist, a zoologist, and

a geologist from first to last/'1

Another friend, the Rev. Dr. Campbell, now Princi-

pal of the University of Aberdeen, who made his ac-

quaintance at the Botanical Classroom, has kindly sent

me the accompanying sketch :—

“ I have a vivid remembrance of the occasion on

which Edward Forbes first fixed my attention. Dr.

Graham, the Professor of Botany, whose class we at-

tended during the summer of 1832, was in the practice

of marking by numbers, certain of the British plants in

the garden, and requiring the students to discover and

report to him their names. When standing one day after

lecture with some class-fellows over a plant thus marked,

none of us being able to assign its name, I heard a

voice call out over my shoulder, ‘ Oh ! that is Eupa-

toriub Caddcibidub’ [Eupcitorium Gcinnabinum]. Our

surviving fellow-students will at once recognise by the

peculiar pronunciation and the ready answer, that the

speaker was Forbes. At that time he always spoke as

one does when the nose, as the phrase is, is stuffed with

cold;and this peculiarity, although greatly modified by

time, was never, I think, entirely got rid of.

“ On turning round I saw a student, a year or two

my junior in age, clad in an olive-coloured surtout, whose

tall, slightly-stooping figure, pale and somewhat sallow

complexion, and kindly, intelligent eye, had sometimes

arrested a passing glance in the class-room. We entered

1 Scots'nian newspaper, Nov. 22, 1854. Annals and Magazine of Natural History,

January 1855, p. 51.

183]. EDWARD FORBES. 147

into conversation. I was greatly astonished at the ex-

tent and variety of the studies of so young a man in

Natural History;and when I found that his attain-

ments had been the result of solitary investigation, under

the sole impulse of native genius and love of science, 1

at once felt confident of his future eminence.

“ Our acquaintance grew steadily. I remember well

my first visit to his lodgings. I found him surrounded

by objects from all the realms of nature;minerals and

rock-specimens;

algae and shells;seeds undergoing all

kinds of treatment ;snails decapitated, yet living in the

hope of sprouting forth new heads;and a frog or two

patiently ministering in some other way to the progress

of science;while on the table at which he sat, amid

specimens of dried plants, lay manuscripts, landscapes,

portraits of natural objects, and caricatures, in pencil, in

ink, in sepia, in water-colours (besides one or two in oil

against the wall), a geological map and sections of his

native island, and a boyish travesty of the opening of

the Iliad, with reference to the Reform Bill, in which the

political leaders of the time figured in the places of the

Greek chieftains. Of this, when I entered the room, I

think he had been engaged in making a corrected copy, of

which he read me a portion with great self-complacent

emphasis; but other matters calling for our attention, he

handed me the rough draught of the first hundred lines,

which I still find among my papers. The spirit of this

performance was, like its author at the time, intensely

Tory. As in my own case, and that of many of our con-

temporaries, the indiscriminate abuse, the vulgar appeals

to popular passion, the coarse contempt of men and

148 MEMOIR OE CHAP. V.

tilings identified in our minds with all the greatness of

our country, amid which the Reform Bill had been car-

ried, had aroused in him a loathing dislike, a dread lest

all that was truly great and ennobling in literature and

science should be swept away by a barbarian irruption

of low utilitarianism. He never lost temper or gave

offence;but he never omitted an opportunity of ex-

pressing his political sentiments. He smiled when, in

Jermyn Street, in 1851, after a separation of eighteen

years, I said that the Reform Bill had not stopped his

advance in science or in fame.

“ When 1 became acquainted with him, Forbes, al-

though only eighteen years of age, had already acquired

a clear, systematic knowledge of Natural History in all

its branches, which was truly extraordinary. His powers

of abstraction and generalization, and of perceiving the

connexion between apparently isolated facts in remote

departments of nature, and widely separated regions of

the world, were astonishing in one so young. Every

new object he took up as an old acquaintance, and al-

though it was plainly impossible that he could have seen

the object before, he rarely hesitated in naming correctly

what he saw, and never in assigning it its place in the

system. Notwithstanding the confused and desultory

manner in which he appeared to pursue his studies, and

even to arrange his collections, every phenomenon and

object ranged itself in its due order in the cabinet of his

mind. In new, and to him untrodden paths by sea and

by land, in mines and on mountain tops, he appeared

always to know what was to be found. He possessed

an advantage, which it is impossible to overrate, in his


wonderful talent for drawing with rapidity, accuracy,

and spirit, and with any materials, although always with

the happiest selection from the materials within his reach,

any object or scene which presented itself.

“ His humour showed best in the exercise of his

pencil, in which he might have disputed the palm with

Bewick. He was not witty in conversation, but would

at times break out into boyish hilarity and uproarious

fun, in which he would bawl out broadly comic and

grotesque verses of his own composition, without a par-

ticle of tune, but with as great self-complacency as if he

were discoursing most eloquent ‘music. His innocent,

guileless heart, in the intervals of deep thought, often

came gushing forth in a stream of high spirits.

“ His general reading was far more varied and ex-

tensive than might be supposed, considering his amazing

progress in science. He understood and remembered

what he had read at school of the classics. His criti-

cisms on poetry were often strikingly correct. Some-

times, although very rarely, he fell for a short time into

a sentimental mood.

“ His chief moral excellencies were great candour

and reasonableness, great gentleness and love of peace.

He sought peace and ensued it, partly perhaps from con-

stitutional timidity and caution. He abhorred dissen-

sions. He put the best construction on all the wordsand deeds of others. He seldom or never complained of

others, or found fault. A maxim often on his lips during

our intercourse was, ‘ Let every man do his own way,as long as he does no harm to others/ He was totally

devoid of envy, jealousy, malice, or anger. Without

1.50 MEMOIR OF CHAP. V.

being actively benevolent, or indifferent to Ids own com-

fort and success, yet no man could rejoice with a purer

joy than he did in the discoveries and in the growing

fame and prosperity of others.”

We are now in a condition to picture to ourselves

how Edward Forbes spent his first academic year. Helodged at 6 Howe Street, one of the steep streets on the

north side of the New Town, leading towards the sea.

This lodging was conveniently situated half-way between

his favourite haunts, the Natural History Museum and

the Botanic Garden;Arthur Seat, and the sea. A liberal

allowance from his father gave him command over all

the requisites for study, and after a fashion of his own

he was unsystematically economical.1 During the winter

months the forenoon was spent in attending lectures on

Anatomy, Chemistry, and Materia Medica;

the after-

noon in studying the specimens in the Museums of the

University and the College of Surgeons;in reading in

the Library of the University;

but perhaps chiefly in

Dr. Knox’s dissecting rooms. In summer, Botany, Natu-

ral History, and Practical Chemistry, took the place of

the classes named above. The Saturdays, all through

the year, were largely devoted to country strolls, and

as the season went on, to lengthened botanical excur-J O

sions, insect hunting, field geology, and dredgings in the

Firth of Forth. He was better provided with introduc-

tions to families in Edinburgh, than most stranger stu-

dents are, and as he became a favourite, without fail, in

every circle to which he was introduced, he could always

1 This allowance amounted to about sufficient for the wants of an Edinburgh

£120 per annum, a sum more than amply student.


secure relaxation in the evenings. Fond of society, lie

availed himself frequently of this privilege, and his love

for dramatic representation took him occasionally to the

Theatre;but the great amount of work which he did

during his first session, is sufficient proof that the great

majority of his evenings were spent in study at home.

We have already seen how regularly he attended church.

Thus far our sketch is a mere generality which would

apply with little alteration to any well-disposed medical

student. The peculiarity hi Forbes’s case lay in the wide

and diversified field of study over which he ranged ;in

the almost exclusive preference which he showed to the

scientific, and especially the naturalistic, over the profes-

sional branches of medicine;and in the unusual amount

of acquisition in Natural History Science, and trained

power of original investigation which characterized him

even at the threshold of his medical novitiate. The

proofs of this are abundant. It costs the ablest begin-

ner a strenuous effort to follow with intellectual profit

such a curriculum of study as Forbes was now pursuing.

At a later period, no doubt, he deliberately neglected

medicine, but I have the authority of Professor Goodsir

for statmg that at this time he was a zealous and de-

lighted student of Anatomy, and it is needless to adduce

evidence of his devotion to such subjects as Chemistry

and Botany, which he was professedly investigating on

account of their medical, not their intrinsic interest. 1

except Materia Medica, which, implying the application

of Anatomy, Chemistry, Botany, Physiology, Practice of

Physic, Surgery, and much else, to the maintenance of

health and the cure of disease, could not be appreciated


or ill many respects understood by the most intelligent

medical novice. It was a mistake on Forbes’s part to

take out such a class in his first year, but such a mis-

take as a beginner readily makes. He gave the subject,

however, a certain amount of attention, if it were no

more than his bodily presence for some five hours each

week in the lecture-room, so that he burdened himself

with a class more than most first-year students of medi-

cine attend. Here, then, was seemingly work enough,

but it did not content the energy of Forbes.

Among the mss. which Mr. Goodsir saw crowding

the table of his lodgings, lay open what he described to

me as “ a long foolscap note book.'’ I have it now before

me. It is marked on the board—“ Edwardus Forbes,

Medicines Naturcsque Stucliosus in Academia Regia

Edinburgena Alumnus, Societatis Regies Physices Socius,

etc. etc. 183 1/’ 1 and is surmounted by the writer’s be-

loved three-legged symbol of his native land. On the

first page it is entitled, “ Place-book from Novemb. 1831

to Novernb. 1835.” It contains some references as late

as 1843, but the great majority are within the dates

given, and as the years in question include those formally

devoted by Edward Forbes to medicine, its contents

throw much light on his occupations during his medical

studies. The book under notice is a narrow foolscap

volume containing 180 pages, of which the greater part

refers to 1831-33. It is partly a Commonplace Book

1 I quote this title for the emphatic“ Naturseque,” showing his preliminary

repudiation of the mere title of “ student

of medicine,” and because the reference

to the Physical Society appears to show

that the booh was commenced in Edin-

burgh. Some friend has improved the

Latin, replacing a scored-out word—ap-

parently stuclentens (?)—by“ studiosus,”

and adding after an altered vowel, the

word “ alumnus.”


for unannotated extracts, partly a record of original ob-

servations, partly a depository of criticisms on the writ-

ings of others, partly a series of memoranda of things

proposed to be done. There are many drawings of

Natural History objects, some of them coloured, and a

few fanciful sketches, but the last are less abundant

than in others of his note-books. The general impres-

sion conveyed by a glance through the work is that its

writer was a person of great diligence, and very desultory

tastes, much given to literature and to Natural History,

but not particularly interested in medicine. It is dif-

ficult to be certain about dates in the case of one so in-

veterately negligent in chronology as our author was,

but a reference to the contents and the first six pages

of the book, which certainly belong to the close of 1831,

and the earlier part of 1832,will throw some light on

his favourite studies.

Resolved from the first to study literature and science

side by side, he has begun by ruling his pages down the

middle, and heading the left half-page or column, “Lite-

rary/’ and the right “ Scientific. ” The date on the first

page is “ December 1831 .” He gives up the double

column by and by, but to the end he keeps alternating

literary and scientific references. The earlier ones are all

extracts, varying from sentences or stanzas, to paragraphs

and entire poems. In literature we find, in the matter

of poetry, pieces from Byron’s Manfred; Hogg’s Queen

Hynde;Stanzas to Music (from “ Blcichi ood”)

; Thom-son’s Seasons

;Spenser’s Faery Queen (many extracts)

;

Wordsworth’s Excursion (many extracts);Hindoo Poetry

(translated in Quart. Review, 1831) ;

Shakspere (chiefly


from Midsummer Night’s Dream); Crabbe’s Tales of the

Hall;Southey’s Curse of Kehama

;Swift on Poetry

;

Atherstone’s Fall of Nineveh; Zachary Boyd’s Bible (this

extract is not in Forbes’s handwriting);Butler’s Idudi-

bras;

Moliere’s Malade Imaginaire (Examination of

Candidate for Bachelorship of Physic);

l Cowper’s Con-

versation and Task; Coleridge’s Christabel, Genevieve,

Ancient Mariner, etc.;Pope’s Essay on Man

;Joseph

Warton’s Ode to Fancy;Ben Jonson

;Anacreon (in the

original, and as translated by Cowley);Dryden’s Cymon

and Iphigenia;Waller’s Amoret

;Campbell’s Muse of

Painting; Shelley; James Montgomery; Collins’ Ode to

Liberty;Gray. The poetical readings thus referred to

are in full accordance with those we have already seen

him pursuing in the Isle of Man. Among his papers,

also, I find a small separate volume entitled, “ Book i. of

Homer’s Iliad, translated into English Verse by Edward

Forbes, 1831.”

In prose literature we have extracts from Schlegel’s

Lectures;Fleming’s Philosophy of Zoology

;Buffon’s

Natural History;Dr. Chalmers

;Suetonius

;an Essay

on Universal Bedemption;

Abercrombie’s Intellectual

Powers (many extracts), side by side with which are

quotations as numerous from Paris’s Treatise on Diet

;

Phillips’ Lectures on Painting;Combe’s Phrenology

;

Spurzheim’s Phrenology;

Lord Jeffrey’s Theory of

Beauty (?) ;Hooke

;Shaftesbury’s Characteristics (many

extracts);Dr. Mason Good’s Errors in the Translation of

the Bible, in Life by Dr. 0. Gregory; Payne Knight’s1 An extract occurs here, dated 1833, sible, however, that the later extracts

but it appears to be an interpolation on belong to 1833.

a page purposely left blank. It is pos-


Principles of Taste; Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful;

Hutcheson as quoted by Burke ;Xenophon’s Memora-

bilia of Socrates (translated) ;Enfield’s History of Philo-

sophy.

In the scientific column are quotations from Ure’s

Geology;

Cuvier’s Lectures;

Captain Irby and other

writers on the “ Mustard Tree of Scriptime ;” Smith’s

Introduction to Botany;a list of writers on Marine

Phosphorescence and Animal Electricity;

a list of

writers on the Deluge, etc., taken from Jameson’s Jour-

nal; Dr. W. Gregory’s Analysis of Dead Sea Water;

Brongniart on the Primaeval Vegetation ; Sprengel and

Decandolle’s Philosophy of Plants;Wilford on Hindoo

Doctrine of Deluge of Deucalion;Dimensions of Manx

Fossil Elk, Gervus megaceros (perhaps taken from his

own measurements of the specimen in the Edinburgh

Natural History Museum, which he figures in another

part of the book along with the specimen belonging to

the Royal Dublin Society);

R. C. Taylor on British

Fossil Shells;

Bowditch on Memory and Instinct in

Animals;Article in Phil. Mag. on Living Fibres (this

extract is dated 1833) ;

Gordon on Analogy between

Structure and Functions of Plants and Animals.

After this comes, all under date 1831,“a List of

the Esculent Fungi found in Great Britain, from Dr.

Greville’s Paper in the Wernerian Society’s Transactions;”

a “ Systema Naturae,” illustrated and seemingly original

;

“ Notes on Comparative Anatomy, from Cuvier’s Lec-

tures.” Besides these are several entries out of order,

but dated 1831 or 1832,such as, under the former year,

a whole page occupied by a copy (from Mr. Combe’s work)

156 MEMOIR OK CIIAP. V.

of a head, with the phrenological organs marked on it,

and a numbered list of their names. This supplies the

materials for a very curious estimate by Forbes of his

own character, drawn up in 1835 .

It is needless to repeat that the extracts given are

proofs of great though desultory diligence. They are

not more numerous or more diversified than such as

would be found in the note-books of many a clever

literary student, but in judging of them it must be re-

membered that Forbes was the opposite of a literary or

scientific recluse. He had nothing in him of the Heluo

Librorum. Books were useful to him, but not indis-

pensable to his comfort. He was impatient of confine-

ment and protracted reading. When alone within doors,

a Natural History specimen, a pencil, or a microscope was

as often in his hand as a book, whether professedly work-

ing or resting. Out of doors his happiest days were

spent in botanizing, geologizing, dredging, or sketching.

When the season of the year or the weather rendered

these occupations impossible, museums, picture-galleries,

meetings of scientific societies, public exhibitions, dra-

matic representations, concerts, and social parties had

great attractions for him;

and verse-making was a

favourite occupation at all times and places. It is mar-

vellous, accordingly, that even in his first medical session,

when he was more a recluse than in later years, he should

have read so much in works lying, many of them, outside

the circle of his formal professional studies. It would

excite no surprise to find a richer Commonplace Book

in the hands of a student of law or theology, but few

naturalists, and still fewer students of medicine, would


be found quoting in their memoranda such works as

Forbes delighted to peruse.

With all his catholicity of intellectual taste, however,

he did not take kindly to the purely medical departments

of medicine. The evidence of the Note Book on this

point is solely negative, and had we only it to guide us,

we could not safely draw any very decided conclusion.

Nevertheless its silence is significant;

for the Note

Book, in common with the multitudinous others kept by

its author, was, after a few pages had been consecrated

to a special purpose, practically regarded as a desk full

of pigeon holes, into one of which was thrust whatever

thought of others or his own, written or reducible to

writing, happened to interest him. We hunt in vain,

however, through the deposits of some four years for

any reference to medicine more precise than such extracts

from Paris on Diet, as

:

—“ Wedder mutton perfect at

five years;ewe mutton best at two years. . . . Sydenham

always took a glass of small-beer at his meals, and he

considered it as a preservative against gravel.” On the

other hand, if we dive at random into the book, we find

lengthened and elaborate abstracts of papers on Natural

History, occupying many of them a number of pages,

and not a few illustrated by a long series of drawings.

Such are some conchological anomalies, noticed by Gray;

European Diptera, by Meyer, with pen-and-ink draw-

ings of the typical insects; Carl Pfeiffer’s “ Land-und-

Wasser Schnecken,” with numerous coloured drawings of

the more interesting shells;

“ A view of the Classifica-

tion of Molluscous Animals, by Baron Cuvier

“

Ma-terials towards a Conchology of the Irish Seas,” with

M

158 MEMOIR OR CHAP. V.

extracts from papers by Broderip and Sowerby;

“ Suc-

cession of Secondary Bocks, from Cuvier’s Essay,” with

two pages of illustrative drawings;

“ Leach’s Arrange

dent of the Cirrhipedes “ Additions to the British

Fauna,” from various authorities, etc. etc. etc.

In making these full extracts or quotations he was

only carrying out a scheme begun long before. One of

them (dated 1831) is entitled, “ Notes on British Botany

from the English Flora, forming an appendix to myNat. Hist., Div. British Botany.”

The “ Natural History” thus referred to is a small ms.

quarto, marked on the fly-leaf “Vol. 1. Compiled and

Transcribed during the years 1828-1829, 30-31.” It

was thus begun in the Isle of Man when he was thirteen,

and probably completed in Edinburgh when he was

sixteen. It consists of above a hundred pages, and

is divided into six sections :—

1.

Botany according to the Linnaan System.

II. Mineralogy according to Professors Mohs and Jameson.

III. Geognosy according to [authority not given].

IV. Organic Remains according to Linnaeus, Cuvier, Parkinson, etc., with an

Appendix containing a Table of British Fossil Shells, from Parkinson,

with additions.

V. Conchology according to Fleming.

VI. Zoophytes.

These sections are drawn up in the form of tabulated

columns, with headings and detailed indices. The Bo-

tanical Section is the fullest, and to judge from the

boyish handwriting, as well as from its place, it is the

earliest, but the book has in part at least been written

on separate leaves, afterwards bound together, and these

may be of different dates. This division is largely illus-

trated by coloured drawings of a very rude sort, but with


wonderful character about them, and unmistakable as

likenesses of the plants they depict. The British fossil

shells are also illustrated by graphic pen-and-ink sketches,

and the book otherwise is remarkable, like that just

described, for the total absence of those fanciful designs

with which the compiler generally covered the margins,

and sometimes filled the pages, of his ms. volumes.

The absence of such pictorial fancies, the careful

classification, and the elaborate indices, all show that

the book was not compiled as a pastime, still less as a

task. It was plainly intended for use, and must have

been a work of great labour and patience, which only

conviction of its utility could have induced an indulged

boy to begin, and an eager youth to finish. Edward

Forbes, indeed, brought to Edinburgh a much greater

stock of learning in Natural History than the great

majority of its medical graduates, after four years’ study

at its University, carry away with them.

Nor, as implied already, was it only, or even chiefly,

book learning in Science that he brought to Edinburgh.

The faithfulness of his roughest portraits of plants and

shells, the naturalness of his colouring, and the rapidity

with which he pounced upon the novelties of a strange

Flora and Fauna, show how effectual his unmethodical

Manx self-culture had been in training his eye and handto exact observation and execution. His note-book contains an alphabetical list of the Land and FreshwaterShells around Edinburgh, dated at the close, 1833. Butmany of the materials were gathered in 1832, beginningwith the Clausilia in 1831. In this list he gives thehabitat of the animals, and those which are noted on his


own authority show how widely he had traversed the dis-

trict, and made himself familiar with its Fauna. It wasimpossible that in a year so largely devoted to the acqui

sition of knowledge, he could give many proofs of his

powers as an original thinker. Within about a month,

however, of joining (Jan. 24,1832

)the Physical Society,

he read a “ Notice of Experiments on Animals of the

genus Lymnea,” which is embodied in full in the “ Place

Book.” One of the species of this genus of freshwater

shells, Lymnea putris,“abounds,” as he states, “ in the

ditches and pools around Edinburgh.” A paper which

he heard read at a meeting of the Society, led him the

day after becoming a member (Dec. 14,1831 ), to ex-

periment upon it, and he details in his own communica-

tion a series of sagacious observations on the effect of

water, of carbonic acid, and of exclusion of ah- on the

vitality of these creatures.

This notice is remarkable for a simplicity and con-

ciseness of style, rare in authors of eighteen. Logical

precision pervades it, and it ends with the modest com-

mentary that “ the foregoing experiments are simple, and

of no great importance.”

A far stronger proof, however, of his original power

is to be found in the character of the books which he

studied, as read in the light of his subsequent Researches.

He was at this time, as was said of Sir Walter Scott,

when gathering his Border Ballads, “ making himself;”

and his abounding references to plants and to shells

were plainly the early gropings in the dark, and instinc-

tive glimpses of the quarter whence light would dawn, .

which by and by led to his deliberate and authoritative I


statements on the Geographical Distribution of Plants,

and the laws which determine the development of life in

the abysses of the sea.

In such occupations, Edward Forbes spent the first

year of his student life in Edinburgh. To him it was

not as to Tennyson, “the grey metropolis of the North,

but a city which recalled the pictures of Turner and

Claude. When, twenty-five years later, on the threshold

of his brief Professorial life in Edinburgh, he reviewed his

student days, he exalted that city as a great school for

naturalists, not only because of its teachers, but because of

its University Museum, the rich Flora and Fauna of its

neighbourhood, and “ the scenes of unrivalled beauty”

amidst which it was placed. In his Inaugural Lecture,

after commenting on “ the untiring energy, watchfulness,

earnestness, and devotion to science, of ” Professor Jame-

son, as shown in the “ admirable and extensive collection of

specimens” which he had collected, he continues

:

—“ But

here we have not only an excellent Museum at hand;

there is a still greater one all around us. If any one

spot on earth is peculiarly adapted for the study of

Natural History it is this—the district in whose centre

we are now assembled. Everywhere about us are abun-

dant and admirable illustrations of Zoology, Botany, and

Geology. Of its excellent and well-explored Flora, I

leave my eminent colleague and old friend, the Pro-

fessor of Botany, to speak. Amid the rich materials of

its Fauna I learned some of my earliest and best zoological

lessons. To dredge the Firth of Forth under the guid-

ance of shrewd, strong-handed, and strong-armed New-haven fishermen, was an early ambition of mine, and one

L

1G2 MEMOIR OF CHAP. V.

never too often gratified. I know the riches of the liv-

ing treasures that lie in its submarine deeps, and along

its shores; and though, since the time I ventured to

print notices of these embryo efforts, I have explored

most parts of the British Isles, and our seas far out, and

foreign seas and estuaries, famous for their productions,

I have not found any marine region with a population

more varied within its limits, and better fitted to illus-

trate effectively the subjects of a naturalist’s studies.

Even on land and in the air there is an ample supply of

species, quite enough to furnish the student with abund-

ant means of testing the systematic characters taught in

the class-room.

“ As to Geology, where can there be a better district

for practising the student in field-observation ? The

leading phenomena of rock masses are brought almost

to the door of our class-rooms The variety and

beauty of the mineral contents of the igneous rocks

round Edinburgh have long been famous, and have im-

bued every geologist, who received his early training in

this University, with a respect for mineralogical evidence,

and a habit of readily perceiving and using mineral cha-

racters—a great advantage.

The tastes of most men can be traced back to the

habits of their youth, and these habits are, in a great

measure, moulded by the circumstances, physical as well

as intellectual, amid which that youth has been passed.

Grand scenery suggests grand thoughts, and every en-

nobling thought elevates, not merely momentarily but

permanently, the mind in which it flows. It is a great

gain to a University to be placed like this amid scenes


of unrivalled beauty. The youth whose hours oi relaxa-

tion are spent in the presence of these magnificent pro -

spects, so rife and many around us, carries with him in

after life the memory of their beauty and grandeur. . . .

And if, with all this precious accumulation of the vast

and beautiful, there be combined that which is admir-

able in the minute—if Nature in her smallest elements

be prolific in objects of study and reflection, it is not

to be wondered at that this University has been a

hot-bed of naturalists, and that their philosophy has

been one catholic in essence and far-extending in its

”1range. . . .

So passed with Edward Forbes his first academic

year, one of the happiest of his whole life. The dew

of his youth was still upon him. The corrupting breath

of the world had not tainted his freshness, or its cold

touch chilled him. His eager eyes looked forth on a

rich and boundless future. Young men of genius and

tastes like his own had become his attached friends.

Seniors of the highest repute welcomed him as a pupil.

Libraries and museums of the greatest value were open

to him daily. His shortest walks were through the

streets of a city which delighted his artist eye, and had

a strange fascination for him. His longer excursions

carried him quickly into a district which was for him,

to borrow a thought of his own, like the Garden of

Eden to Adam, “ a paradise filled with creatures yet to

be named.” The session fleeted rapidly away, and in

1 Inaugural Lecture by Professor Ed- Edinburgh Monthly Medical Journal,ward Forbes, delivered May 15, 1854.— June 1854.

1G4 MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. CHAP. V.

!>

the pleasant month of August, when Douglas Bay is

calmest and clearest, he was welcomed hack to the Isle

of Man.

CHAPTER VI.

ABANDONMENT OF MEDICINE AS A PROFESSION—ADOPTION

OF NATURAL HISTORY AS A PERMANENT VOCATION.

Dulce est desipere in loco was not one of the guiding

mottos of Edward Forbes. Much as he admired the

vigorous good sense and gentle earnestness of the poet

Cowper, he never would have joined with him in saying

“ I sing the Sofa.” To stretch the subject of Gray’s

Elegy on the greensward, and “ muse upon the stream

that babbled by” was not an occupation to his taste ;

neither would he have cared for the Elysium which the

poet himself found, in lying on a half-completed hay-

rick gazing at the blue sky, or in reclining among soft

cushions reading a romance. He talked of these things

as the possible resources of his old age, but would not

have recourse to them in his active youth. When I

once expressed my surprise at learning from him that

he had read very few of Sir Walter Scott’s Novels, he

gravely replied, that he reserved them for a solace in

case he should become blind ! The only expression of

sympathy on his part with day-dreaming and such Lotos-'

eating idleness as befits the intellectual Castle of In-

dolence, which I can recall, was uttered in the midst of

a party of us, all but himself smoking :“ I wish,” said

166 MEMOIR OF CHAP. VI.

he, “ I could smoke, for smokers have such placid faces.”

If, however, he envied smokers, his envy was of a very

innocent kind. He belonged to the class of energetic

spirits, to whom, except when asleep, change of labour

is more welcome as a recreation than absolute rest. So

untiring indeed was the activity of his waking hours,

that sleep often would not come when sought for, and

it often happened, during his earlier student years,

that nightmare dreams, of which he always spoke

with great horror, revenged upon him his inordinate

energy.

When he returned, accordingly, to the Isle of Man,

he spent the three Autumn months of 1832 in diligent

work. We do not hear anything of Anatomy or Chemis-

try, or of preparation for the prospective medical studies

of the coming winter. Nor indeed is there a detailed

record of any of his doings, but the entries in his note-

book sufficiently show how hard he laboured at Natural

History. He brought back from Edinburgh greatly en-

larged views of Natural History, and a greatly increased

acquaintance with its recorded facts. But the Univer-

sity served him most by teaching him the art of in-

vestigating the science which hitherto he had pursued

in his own solitary, desultory way. The comparative

anatomists furnished him with many a positive con-

trivance for revealing structure, besides the negative one

of not boiling mollusca. He was initiated into all the

devices of the botanists for discovering, dissecting, pre-

serving, and cultivating rare plants. Professor Jameson,

a great artist in mineralogy, communicated to him the

methods which he had learned from Werner, and had


himself improved, for the examination of rocks and

minerals, and from him, too, he had received prac-

tical lessons in geology, as it was studied in the open

field by the fathers of the science.

Furnished thus with a knowledge of the means by

which great naturalists had taught themselves and others

how to observe Nature, he discovered new riches every

day in the territory of Man.

There can be little doubt that already he had formed

the resolution, referred to in a letter to the Rev. J. Cum-

ming, to write a work on the entire Natural History of

the Isle of Man, including some reference to its civil

history, and a full account of its abounding antiquities.

In the end he partially carried out this intention.

The Malacologia Monensis, a Catalogue of the ManxMollusca, was published at Edinburgh in 1 8 3 8. In 1 848,

he contributed to Mr. Gumming’s work, 1Notes on the

Flora of the Isle of Man, and he supplied to the later

editions of Quiggin’s Guide to the Isle of Man a chapter

on its Natural History, in which the Zoology, Entomo-

logy, Conchology, Botany, and Geology are successively

treated, but all with great brevity.

The observations on which these communications

were founded were continued for many years. Theywere begun, indeed, before he first visited London, andcarried on at intervals till he returned to it, but they

were not probably systematically commenced till 1832.

Under that year I find explicit entries, to the extent of

several pages, in reference to birds, shells, and insects,

with a formal list of the first, and drawings of the two1 Ante, p. 2, note.

168 MEMOIIl OF CIIAP. VI.

last. There is an undated Catalogue of Manx Shells,

containing 196 names, followed by a similar list of ManxPlants

,enumerating 383

; and apparently unfinished

lists of Crustacea, Arachnida, Kadiata, etc. There are

also under 1832,Notes on the Geology of the Island,

written at some length, and including a reference to cer-

tain Manx antiquities.

He did not live to achieve a complete account of

the Isle of Man, but the uncompleted investigations which

he made in reference to its physical features, and espe-

cially his dredgings along its coasts, furnished the start-

ing-point for some of the widest generalizations with

which he enriched the whole science of Natural History.

Thus the doctrine of Specific Centres of Distribution of

Plants and Animals, if not suggested to him, was at least

iii his apprehension strikingly illustrated and confirmed

by the characters of the Fauna and Flora of his native

island, as compared with those of Great Britain and

France on the one hand, and of Ireland on the other.

To take an example which has long been of popular

and even superstitious interest;the absence of poisonous

reptiles from Ireland and from the Isle of Man, was

explicable on the hypothesis that they originated on

the Continent, and, spreading from their centre of birth

there, reached England in the course of then’ western

divergence, when Great Britain formed part of the now

adjacent mainland. Before, however, they had travelled

to Ireland or even to Man, these had become islands,

and could no longer be reached. On the other hand,

the Great Elk (Cervus megaceros), whose bones are

found both in Ireland and Man, may be assumed to


have crossed from Europe to both at a time when, the

Irish Sea and the British Channel were occupied by

land, which has since disappeared.

His doctrine, also, of zones of submarine life dif-

fering in character according to the depth of the sea in

which they showed themselves, has been referred to by

writers as first adopted by him in the Mediterranean,

but it is quite certain that it had dawned upon him

during these early dredgings along his native shores,

and it was reduced to writing years before he visited the

iEgean.

In November 1832, he returned to Edinburgh to

enter on his second session of medical study, and a

struggle began between the claims on his time of Na-

tural History and Medicine, in which it is hardly neces-

sary to say that the former prevailed. The struggle

did not end till 1836, when medicine was formally and

finally abandoned, and it will be convenient to trace the

medical career of Edward Forbes onward to its close,

after which we can uninterruptedly consider him in his

true vocation of Naturalist.

The first year of medical study does not, as ordi-

narily pursued, overtask a student, or deprive him of

a large amount of leisure;and, where his tastes incline

him to devote that leisure to Natural History, there need

be little confliction between his inclination and his duty.

But the second year exacting as much anatomy from

him as the first did, and requiring him to keep up his

knowledge of chemistry, adds new studies, such as Sur-

gery, Obstetrics, and Practice of Physic, which are far

from congenial to the tastes of a naturalist. In con-


nexion with these classes, moreover, especially in the

third and fourth years, come much minute dissection in

the anatomical rooms, much attendance in the medical

and surgical wards of the hospitals, many visitations to

patients at their own houses, and to crown all, the con-

stant revision of elementary knowledge, and careful pre-

paration in every branch of medicine, which the final

examinations necessitate, if they are to be passed with

credit.

These duties occupy fully the time even of those

whose love for the profession of Medicine makes all its

demands upon them be easily discharged. But, as 1

can testify from experience, they form an irksome bur-

den to such as only desire to make Medicine a door of

entrance to the prosecution of the Physical Sciences.

Now, Edward Forbes had not the least relish for the

practical duties of the surgeon or physician. He not

only greatly disliked them, but he dreaded lest his for-

mal investiture with the title of physician should be

made a plea by his friends for his professional entrance

on the practice of Medicine, which would have been fatal

to his views as a naturalist. Nor were these objections

counterbalanced by any considerations founded on the

profession of medicine yielding an income. He had a

patrimony, secure enough as it then seemed, and amply

sufficient to supply all the wants of a student, and he

clearly perceived that Natural History was as ready as

the other sciences helpful to man, to acknowledge prac-

tically that “ the labourer is worthy of his hire.”

It would have been strange, accordingly, if he had

been a zealous medical student; but when we further


consider that every day was opening up to him grander

and grander views of the magnificent empire of na-

tural science;and that, simultaneously, he was gather-

ing about him a circle of young men of genial ways

and diversified tastes, who unavoidably and often unin-

tentionally tempted him to take part in their favourite,

but to him alien pursuits, we shall not wonder that he

was one of the idlest students of medicine Edinburgh

ever saw.

In later years, especially when speculating on the

future of his little son, he deprecated all compliments to

himself as a model student, and it would be a mockery

to offer any.

He was in truth altogether in a false position;most

willing to work, and actually working hard, but set to

labour at a calling for which he had the strongest aver-

sion, whilst every facility was offered him for pursuing

another which had been his passion since his childhood.

Had he been pupil in a purely medical school, like those

attached to the London Hospitals, where, at least in his

student days, he would have found no distracting incen-

tives to the study of Natural History, he might have put

the latter altogether aside for a season, and devoted him-

self thoroughly to Medicine, though but as task-work, so as

I

to have quickly done with it, and get back to his favourite

studies. But in Edinburgh he felt towards Natural

History like one who was torn from his first love, and

yet was compelled daily to meet her, and who had his

attachment increased alike by the spectacle of her in-

creasing beauty, and by the obstacles which prevented

his devoting himself altogether to her. Even in London,

172 MEMOIR OE CHAP. VI.

however, he would have been tempted to put off the

evil day, and postpone the hour which signalled his ad-

mission into the ranks of physician. “Once a doctor,

always a doctor,” he felt to be practically as much the

rule as is, according to ecclesiastical theory, “once a

priest, always a priest.” He was most reluctant, accord-

ingly, to take the irrevocable vows, and doom himself

to handle the lancet instead of the pencil or the micro-

scope, and to lose interest in all mollusca except the

medicinal leech. Nevertheless, prompted mainly by

filial obedience, which was a prominent element in his

character, he made a strenuous effort to become Doctor

Forbes, and it seemed promising enough, as we have

seen, in his first medical year. In this second year,

however, it was plainly quite as much as he could do

to keep the balance even between the claims of Natural

History and Medicine. Before the close of the year

the equipoise was sensibly disturbed, and in the wrong-

direction;Medicine, instead of preponderating, ceasing

to counterbalance its rival, and plainly destined, if things

did not alter, to kick the beam. During the succeeding

years desperate efforts were made to adjust the balance,

and even to turn the scale in favour of medicine, but

they signally failed, and before we reach the spring of

1836, the medical scale-pan was as good as quite empty.

There is something serio-comic in the efforts which

for a season Forbes thus made to continue the study of

Medicine. He regularly attended the prescribed lectures,

and none of the note-takers in the class used the pen

more diligently than he. But his pen insensibly and

swiftly changed from a writing into a drawing inst.ru-


ment, and, instead of reporting the prelection, sketched,

with a dash of caricature, the likeness of the Professor,

or of one*or more of the students, and then disported

in pictorial fancies, showing how far away the thoughts

of the artist were from the lecturer or the lecture.

I have before me whilst I write, a manuscript book

nominally devoted to notes on Professor Turner’s lectures

on surgery, and Professor Alison’s on the Institutes of

Medicine. To the latter, however, only one page is as-

signed, and he possibly had a notebook to himself. The

book otherwise is mainly pictorial. A scanty rivulet, as it

were, of written notes, runs through the middle of certain

of the pages at irregular intervals. The broad margins of

these rivulets, besides the whole of the uninscribed leaves

of the book, are occupied with pencil, or pen-and-ink draw-

ings, which, without doubt, were made in the class-room.

Here and there are copies of the diagrams shown by

the lecturer, such as the convulsed body of a sufferer

from lock-jaw, a bandaged or ulcerated limb, or the

branches of an important artery. Mingled with these,

however, and quite overpowering them, are likenesses

of professors, lecturers, and students; Dr. Knox, whoappears in many attitudes, being the favourite subject

of portraiture : sketches of shells, flowers, crystals, imi-

tations of children’s drawings, and fantastic, imaginary

figures innumerable. Whimsically various though these

drawings are, a certain medical tone prevails amongthem. A pedantic doctor flourishes a stethoscope. Agrim anatomist “ opens” a body in an unheard-of fashion.

A sick man makesmy faces over a physic bottle. Skulls

abound;

skulls laughing, weeping, wearing spectacles,

174 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. VI.

looking wise, looking foolish, displaying every humanpassion. Skeletons are not less abundant, and in the

most lively attitudes, gesticulating, dancing in couples,

fencing, perambulating • more like living men and womenwho had adopted the Rev. Sidney Smith’s recipe against

very hot weather, and for coolness’ sake had undressed

to their bones, than the grim relics of the dead, at homeonly in the grave.

It might justly be urged in defence of Forbes, that

Turner, as I can testify, was a most uninteresting lec-

turer,—a timid, shy man, who could not look his class

in the face, and seemed fitted by Nature for anything

rather than the duties and responsibilities of an operat-

ing surgeon. But it is needless to urge this plea, f

even where the Professors were famous as teachers, th

could not commend medicine to Forbes. Some pc

tions of Dr. Alison’s Lectures on Physiology must ha

thoroughly interested him, but, these excepted, he wa

dered from lecture-room to lecture-room in obedien

to College rules which required his presence in thei

without finding anything so welcome as his own da

dreams.

It was impossible, however, that a spirit so energel

as his could passively endure the tedium of such routi

attendance on tiresome lectures, or be long content wi

warding off ennui by indulging his fancy. An almost u

conscious reaction against the unintentional intellectu

tyranny exerted over him by the lecturers on branch

of medicine which he hated, led him to revenge hii

self upon them by caricatures which by and by we

made public. Revenge is perhaps too strong a ten


for his nature was very kindly, and far from being dis-

posed to hanker after vengeance. But I know no milder

phrase which will express the fact, that the caricature

likenesses he published of Edinburgh academic digni-

taries were, in some sort, reprisals for the unprofitable

waste of time which attendance on their prelections

had occasioned him. It was not a step likely to win

their favour towards him, and his consciousness of this

increased his reluctance to come before them as exa-

miners. I have adduced no proof of the truth of these

conclusions except the hieroglyphics of his note-book,

but more direct testimony is easily furnished. The

College companions who knew most about his medical

studies were his future colleagues, Professors Goodsir

and Bennett. Mr. Goodsir tells me that Edward Forbes

knew more of medicine than is generally supposed, and

that he could easily have mastered what little he did not

know, but he did not wish to take a medical decree.

Dr. Bennett states, in his Memoir, that during the period

of his attending the medical classes in Edinburgh, Forbes

“ could never conquer his dislike to medicine as a pro

fession. He was seldom seen in the dissecting-room or

Infirmary. Even his attendance on the purely medical

classes was of no great use to him, as he did little else

than sketch the features of the Professor, or of the

surrounding students.” 1Dr. Bennett adds, that in

the session 1834- 5, Forbes and three others “ were

associated in bringing out a weekly publication called

the University Magci. It was illustrated by sketches

of several prominent men about the College, executed1 Edinburgh Monthly Medical Journal for January 1855, p. 76.


by Forbes, and contains several of his poetical effu-

sions.” 1 We shall have more to say of the Maya again.

It is referred to here simply as the publication in which,

among others, certain of the prospective examiners of

Forbes had their likenesses presented in a fashion not

the most flattering.

But we learn most from his own letters. The earliest

put at my disposal date from 1835 . On December 3,

1835,he writes at length to his “ father and mother.”

In the course of it he mentions:—“I am as well as I

could wish, and at present am very busy with purely

medical studies, anything but pleasant as you maysuppose from my dislike of them

; but followed up

earnestly and exclusively at present, in order that it may

not be said want of exertion should prevent my getting

a degree here. As it is, I expect (if my health con-

tinues) to pass my first examination in the first week

of May, and my second if possible in July;thus having

the prospect of eight months’ hard work before me.

To enable me to do this I am obliged to ‘ grind,’ as it

is technically termed;that is, undergo a private exami-

nation with an authorized teacher or tutor, a ceremony

now indispensable owing to the difficulty of passing,

though rather expensive, as the charge is one pound six

shillings a month. My hopes of getting through here

rest wholly on this. This class, from ten to eleven, and

another from two to three in the College (Pathology and

Clinical Surgery), with the Hospital at twelve, are the

sum of my occupations out of door at present.” From

a postscript it appears that the gentleman selected as

1 Edinburgh Monthly Medical Journal for January 1855, p. 78.


private medical tutor was Dr. Seller, whose wide accom-

plishments are known to all. He began to attend him

in November. At Christmas, he writes again at con-

siderable length to his father and mother, especially in

reference to the latter, who was suffering from an illness

which soon after proved fatal. In the course of this

letter he alludes more than once to his studies, as fol-

lows :—“ I shall attend to your request of not visiting

the fever wards, and will not put myself in the way

of any infectious diseases, which I am happy to say are

greatly diminished in the hospital of late. ... I leave

off my medical studies during the holiday week, and

amuse myself with Natural History, etc., as a relief. . .

. . The University is on the qui rive at present, in con-

sequence of the addition, during the last month, of the

celebrated Sir Charles Bell to its list of Professors, as

the successor of Professor Turner in the chair of surgery.

“ I expect to get through this year—after which (and

indeed independent of which) I have chalked out a hue

which I have every reason to believe will be attended

with success, and which plan I may submit to you, in

detail, in a future letter.”1

On January 3,1836

,Edward Forbes had the great

misfortune of losing his mother. Her death took awayone strong motive for taking a medical degree. Heknew that his elevation to the rank and title of phy-sician would greatly please her, and he loved her too

well to grudge struggling hard to give her this pleasure.

But his father looked to the doctorate more as the pass-

1 This letter is dated “6, Howe St., Edinbro., Monday, Dec. 28." The post-

mark gives the year 1835.

M

1.78 MEMOIR OF CHAP. VI.

port to a profession, than as an honour, and his son, to

whom the profession was more unwelcome than the title,

was not equally desirous to meet his wishes. He still,

however, went on with his medical studies.

On March 11, 1836, he writes to his father:—“1

have been during the past and present month, mainly

occupied with the writing of my Thesis, which has in-

deed taken up more time than I can conveniently spare.

Yet it is a task which must be performed, and which

ought to have an influence with the Professors, though

I am afraid some of them do not care much about the

merits of a Thesis, especially a botanical one, as mine is.

As a medical one from me would have been a mere com-

pilation, and of no use hereafter, I preferred writing an

original one, even though the subject may lead to a dis-

pute as to the propriety of doing so. The two Natural

History professors wish to see Natural History theses

introduced, and have expressed their intention to sup-

port any student so doing.

“ In May, I go up for my first examination. I fear

much it will be a severe one on some points, as I have

every reason to expect no quarter from one or two of

the examiners. I shall do my best, however, to get

through, and contest the point should I meet with any

unfairness.

“ My medical studies are sadly in the way of my

scientific and literary pursuits and views. I can get

nothing done in Natural History at present, which an-

noys me exceedingly, inasmuch as I have many oppor-

tunities, indeed more and more every day, of turning

my scientific researches to ultimate advantage. Hie

1 S3(i. EDWARD FORBES. 179

summer, too, must be spoiled in the same way, for should

it be destined that I am to pass my first examination,

as I hope it may be, I shall have doubly hard work for

my second, of [for] which, from circumstances over

which I had no control,—the death of the Professor of

Materia Medica, ere he had half-completed his course,

and the useless lectures of the Professor of Practice of

Physic,—I am, in common with all those who commenced

in 1831, but ill-prepared.” From a postscript to this

letter, it appears that he is still attending Dr. Seller’s

private examinations.

To his student friends he expressed himself still more

unreservedly. In a letter to Dr. Percy,1of date, October

10, 1835, he thus writes from the Isle of Man, looking

forward to his approaching examinations :

—“ The next

winter will be a most uncongenial one to mv habits.

I must pass, if possible, and to tell the truth I abhor

the profession and despise the degree. And now for

Botany.”

The “ if possible,” the counterpart of the “ should it

be destined I am to pass,” of the letter to his father, was

not a superfluous phrase. May was the month of trial,

but on the 24th of the preceding April, he writes from

Edinburgh to Percy in Paris :—“ I am as ambitious as

you are of discoveries beyond the Equator—the expe

dition of my day-dreams being the crossing of NewHolland through the centre, if possible. We might someday or other do it together. As it is, I am quite lost to

the medical profession, finding my professional know-

1 One of his earliest friends at College, and afterwards his colleague in the Go-vernment School of Mines, London.


ledge so defective, that I have been obliged to give up

all thoughts of taking my degree here this year. In

short, from this day I mean to devote myself wholly

to science and literature, trusting that my devotion to

their cause may yet interest fortune in my behalf and

not (sic)1 bring me in, before many years roll over, some

remuneration for my exertions.” The vow thus recorded

was kept, and Medicine as a profession finally abandoned.

A few particulars concerning the last effort to become

Doctor Forbes are furnished by Dr. Bennett. “On the

approach of spring 183 6, it became necessary for Ed-

ward Forbes to prepare for his examination, at the pro-

spect of which he manifested on all occasions the greatest

repugnance. But as the necessity of‘ going up’ was

strongly urged by his friends, and as he was deficient

in the requisite knowledge, the writer of this sketch

[Dr. Bennett] (being at the moment considered chief

medicus of the set) undertook to grind him in anatomy

and physiology. With great trouble we at length forced

him to write out his schedule of study, and send it in to

the secretary’s office. Then commenced many dismal

evenings of yawnings over the bones, and anatomical

books, of which he soon became weary, often arranging

with friends to come in at the time when he thought

he should be tired of such work. We need scarcely

say that Cloquet’s Anatomy and the bones were then

thrown aside for an evening of gaiety and philosophi-

cal discussion. . . . After this it need not be won-

dered at that, when summoned to appear on a certain

1 The not is plainly a clerical error. —

“

Excuse blunders, as I never re-read

In a note to this very letter he writes : my letters.”


afternoon, he at the appointed time was non inven-

tus

”

To one aspect only of this transaction does reference

seem necessary. In one of the letters to his father he

alludes to the severity with which he is likely to be

treated by certain of the examiners, and to the possi-

bility of unfairness being shown him. His apprehension

of unfairness was certainly groundless, and can only be

set down as one of the baseless alarms which character-

istically haunt the imaginations of students “ going up

for their degrees. His expectation of severity (but not

of over-severity) was better founded. The professors of

Botany and Natural History appreciated him as a man

of rare genius, accomplishment, and power of work, but

to the majority of their colleagues, as to the University

in general, he was familiar only as an eccentric youth,

conspicuous by his long hair and moustache, and known

to be the editor of the audacious Magct, and the de-

signer of the irreverential portraits of academic digni-

taries which were weekly displayed at the College gate.

Edward Forbes knew this, and the conscience which

makes cowards of us all, doubtless brought before him

various productions of his pen and pencil, which were

not exactly calculated to propitiate examiners in his

favour, even where they themselves were satirized in

the most harmless way. Dr. Hope had one all-comprehen-

!

sive denunciatory phrase, “ strictly unacademical,” which

stamped as under the professorial ban whatever it was

applied to. I scarcely know what about Edward Forbes

the long hair;the then outre moustache

;the red ribbon

across the breast (of which more presently);the portrait

Ik a


taking in the class-room—would have failed to he in-

cluded in the damnatory category.

Forbes doubtless realized all this, and felt that he

could not expect leniency at the hands of the examiners,

and the transition was easy to the exaggerated fancy

that they would do their best to reject him. His judg-

ments of other men were generally most charitable, and

this exception will surprise no one who has had personal

or relative experience of the feelings withwhich overtasked

students, out of health and doubtful of success, regard

them prospective examiners. They invariably figure

them to themselves, as if each was a Spanish Torque-

mada, or English Judge Jeffreys. Here in his own

serio-comic fashion is Forbes’s acknowledgment of the

fact

:

—THE VISION OF ONE “ GOING UP.”

A FRAGMENT.

’Twas after dinner, yesterday, I sat,

In my arm-chair before a blazing fire,

When most somniferously sleepy, I,

In consequence of loaded stomach, felt,

And to promote digestion thought it best,

To put the candles out and fall asleep.

Methought that most eventful day had come

When I before professors most austere

Must go, and undergo examination,

And that I sat me trembling and afraid

On the stone steps of famed Physicians’ Hall,

Unknowing how to knock and ring through fear,

Dark fear and trepidation, spirits which

Too long have terrified the youthful mind,

—

At first in shape of birch and sugar-cane

(Some say bamboo, and others nine-tailed cat),

And then assuming human countenance,

In form of frown, and taunt, and scornful smile ;

When as I sat, there came from out the door

A poor rejected student, whose pale looks

And palpitating heart bespoke bis fate,

Still stronger told by sight most horrible


Of prussic acid bottle in bis band,

The final finisher of all bis woes;

And at his heels a fierce examinator

Rushed reckless, with a loud-resounding laugh,

When me espying, in he bade me come,

And meet my fate,—entranced by the gaze

Of his fierce eye, and by the solemn sound

Of voice used to imperative command,

I followed him instinctively, and saw

A sight which sickens me to recollect.

There in a lofty and a lengthy hall,

Around a table covered with green baize,

Sat the Examinators,—animals

Of wondrous shapes, with horns, and bills, and claws,

And hoofs, and asses’ ears, and grinding teeth,

Wherewith to torment and to terrify

The luckless student, who, unknowing what

A horrid fate awaited him, came there

In Sunday clothes to seek for a degree.

There came a horrid shriek across my brain,

And in excess of terror I awoke,

Then thankful found myself once more alive

In my arm-chair’s embraces, by the side

Of half-exhausted fire—so breathed a prayer,

And rang my bell for a supply of coals,

Then reading Cloquet fell asleep again l1

It may surprise some, and seem to them a sign of

weakness of will, that a man of Forbes’s intellectual

capacity and power of work, should not have doggedly

stuck to Medicine and taken his degree, as so many men

of far inferior powers have done. But if I feel tempted

for a moment to concur in this surprise, and to affirm

that he would have saved time and avoided fret, had

he made short work of Medicine and returned, crowned

with his degree, to Natural History, I feel compelled to

pause for two reasons.

1st, The period of his nominal study of Medicine

was not one of idleness, but of such devoted labour to

Natural History as in the end produced the most splendid

i University Maya, No. ix. for March 5, 1835.

184- memoir OF ciiap. vi.

fruits. And who shall say that if these precious years,

which lie between eighteen and twenty-three, had been

absorbed by Medicine, we should have seen any such

fruits at all ?

2d, The only motive which induced him to attempt

the study of Medicine, was the wish of his parents, or

rather of his father, who desired to see him attached to

a profession by which he could support himself. It very

soon, however, became most evident to Forbes, that

though it might cost him no immense effort to obtain a

medical degree, it would be an utterly useless title, for

he had no fitness for the duties of medical practitioner.

On the other hand, he felt that exceedingly few were

qualifying themselves, as he was diligently doing, for a

chair of Natural History, and that he might reasonably

hope to fill the most famous chair in the country.

Meanwhile, there were lesser lectureships and appoint-

ments, one or other of which he could scarcely fail to

get, seeing that Botany, Geology, and Zoology, were

equally familiar to him. He was actuated thus by a

wise policy in what seemed to many, mere caprice or

self-indulgent idleness. The death of his mother re-

moved one of the only two persons in the world who

specially desired to see him a doctor;and she left him

property held in her own right, so that in pecuniary

matters he was so far independent. It remained then

only to satisfy his father that a medical degree would be

useless to him, and he seems to have found no difficulty

in this, for there is no rumour, or trace of any differ-

ence between them, and his allowance continued to be

as liberal as before. He celebrated his emancipation


from the fetters of Medicine, by energetically aiding in

the foundation of a Botanical Society in Edinburgh,

a proof alike that love of idleness was not the cause

of his abandoning Medicine, and that he had not for-

feited the esteem of his peers or seniors by its abandon-

ment.

So ended the endeavour of Edward Forbes to be-

come a physician. For live years he had nominally been

training himself to will with distinction an honorary title,

and just when it was within his grasp he flung away his

weapons and folded his arms. Of the five sciences on

which in the first examination he would have been inter-

rogated, he could have taken in Natural History and

Botany a place far above that which even the most

distinguished graduates of his own, or of later epochs

dreamed of attaining. In Chemistry, his answers would

certainly have been much beyond the average. In Phy-

siology his knowledge, apart from Pathology, was un-

avoidably large, and the Professor and Examiner, Dr.

Alison, was one so kind and gentle that no student

feared to enter his presence. Only on the minute in-

tricacies of Anatomy, which are justly demanded from

the future surgeon and physician, was his knowledge

defective. But Dr. Monro, though given to put unex-

pected and often unanswerable questions, was not an

unfair or severe examiner, and Forbes, had he cared to'

do it, could easily, even without the friendly assistance

which was at his command, have mastered more minute

anatomy than would have satisfied all the three Monrosas examiners.

18C MEMOIR OF CHAP. VI.

The subjects also of the second examination were

more familiar to him than even his own letters imply.

Ee could easily have been puzzled by many a question

on Practical Medicine and Surgery, but he could apply

their principles when occasion demanded. Dr. Bennett

has, I believe, done him unintentionally injustice in this

matter. His delight in watching the ways and manners

of men took him to the wards of the Hospital, as a place

for such study, apart from its relation to medicine. He

has told me of incidents in the Boyal Infirmary of Edin-

burgh, which implied that he was no stranger to its

wards;and when, in fulfilment of his vow to study only

Science and Art, he went in 1836 to Paris, he made an

exception in favour of the Hospitals, of which he says, in

a letter to Percy

:

—“ Nov. —

,1836.

“ I propose spending the winter in Paris, mainly

studying Natural History, for I have almost cut Medi-

cine, though curiosity will, I hope, induce me to walk

the Hospitals every other morning.”

When, moreover, he was attached to the Beacon sur-

veying-vessel, he acted for weeks together as surgeon

to the tender, in which he carried on Iris indefatigable

dredgings.

Let no idle medical student, therefore, who dare not

face the Examiners, justify his cowardice by an appeal

to Edward Forbes, unless he can show that he is pre-

eminent in two-fifths of the subjects of the first examina-

tion, eminent in four, and quite able to master the fifth;

and unless further he can show that, in recompense for

declining to attempt this, the time which it would hav e


occupied to small medical purpose, lias been expended

in realizing scientific results of the highest value.

So his biographer can now plead, but few would

have pleaded so in 1836 ;and we could not have blamed

his father, if he had insisted on his son s taking a degiee,

and qualifying himself for the medical profession.

To most but himself he seemed to have made ship-

week of his genius. He had tried two professions and

failed : Art disowned him; Medicine disowned him. To

be a virtuoso man of the world appeared the goal of his

ambition.

So it seemed, but so it was not. His genius had

reached its nadir, and, though none knew it less than

himself, half its course was spent. It was from this

moment daily to mount higher and higher above the

visible horizon, till it reached, and for too brief a season

shone from, the zenith.

When he parted from Fine Art, he uttered a goodbye,

not a farewell, and in token thereof he took his pencil

with him. When he parted from Medicine, he asked

to retain his scalpel as a memorial of the art of dis-

section which she had taught him. With these two

simple tools alternately in his hands, and, as guide and

interpreter of both, the microscope at his eye, he had

such a triad of things as pleased his fancy, and occupied

all his faculties. What use he made of these, and howhe added another “mystical triangle” to the effective

apparatus of Natural History, we are now to see, but

before doing so, we must retrace our steps a little to

mark some aspects of his life during the years nomi-

nally devoted to the study of Medicine.

CHAPTER VII.

STUDENT CLUBS.

The five years spent by Edward Forbes in the study

of Medicine were not years of mere mental toil and soli-

tary relaxation. It was an eminently social and happy

time;

social to a degree far beyond the average of Edin-

burgh student life. His sunny spirit received a welcome

everywhere, and drew together all that was generous and

enthusiastic within its sphere. Not merely students of

natural history and of medicine, but of art, of theology,

and of law, clustered around him. Differences of taste,

pursuit, profession, rank, or nation, seemed ever to melt

away before him. Wherever he found an earnest true-

heartedness, it was enough to secure to its possessor the

fellowship of Edward Forbes.

There was something characteristic, too, in the nature

of this social element. It did not confine itself to mere

festivity or idle gossip. None indeed could sing a fun-

nier song or keep a merrier table. But Forbes went

further;he sought to bind his companions into a brother-

hood of earnest workers and true men. Song and joke

at one time, sober talk at another, and ever the example

of his own buoyant and truth-loving spirit, were the

means whereby he sought to attain his end.


And so it came to pass that this feeling, which had

always been a dominant one, at last took a more de-

finite form. Forbes and three of his fellow-students

resolved themselves into a society or brotherhood for

mutual encouragement and assistance in the search of

truth. They gradually added to their number, though

with scrupulous care, until eventually brethren were to

be found over the whole empire, and in almost every

city of Europe and America. The society, though its

vitality has passed away, is not even yet wholly extinct.

Its foundation and early progress cost Edward Forbes

not a little thought and labour ; he took an active in-

terest in it even when many hundred miles away in the

vEgean Sea;amid the toil and bustle of a professorial

life in London he continued to regard it as his special

care;and when matters in Edinburgh seemed to be

getting wrong, he resolved to leave London in order

to set them right. In short, this society exerted no

unimportant influence on the career of Forbes;and

the history of his connexion with it affords us glimpses

into his own inner nature, as well as the key to part of

his later life.

It started with vigour enough, certainly, but without

the promise of yielding very desirable results. Not in-

deed until it had been some months in existence were its

ultimate ends defined. At first its aim was a vaoueO 5

confused one of upholding good-fellowship, satirizing

the obnoxious professors, marking out what were called

“ snobbish” students for ridicule, advocating the rights

of the University, printing doggrel verses, and cutting

up things in general. And this medley of objects found

190 MEMOIR OF CHAP. VII.

its development in a weekly journal, entitled The University Maga.

It was in the winter of 1834 (Forbes’s fourth year

at College) that Charles Erskine Stewart, Donald Macas-

kill, Edward Forbes, and James Brotherston Laughton,

constituted themselves the “Maga Club.” Erskine en-

tered College in the same year with Forbes, and studied

first Literature, then Medicine. He was the prime mover

in the “Club,” and continued its President until 1836,

when he joined the army in India. Forbes had an espe-

cial love for him, as indeed he could not fail to have, for

Erskine’s enthusiastic spirit and literary power were

characteristics that Forbes knew well how to prize.

Macaskill had likewise attended the medical and literary

classes, and Forbes valued him not only for his sterling

qualities of heart, but for a strong poetical vein with

which our naturalist warmly sympathized, and which as

warmly sympathized with him. Forbes was ever ready

with some nescio quid nugarum for Macaskill’s criticism,

who himself also wrote verses which his friend highly

esteemed.1 Laughton was studying for the Church,

having entered College with Forbes in 1831.

The professed objects of the Maga Club were litera-

ture and good-fellowship. The latter seems at the out-

set to have been of a somewhat vigorous kind, seeing

that each club-night was ushered in by nine standing

i Among Edward Forbes’s early papers

there is a manuscript dedication of a

volume of verse to Macaskill. Though

never published, the poems were actually

written. They related chiefly to the

passions, pursuits, and pleasures of stu-

dent life, and the greater number had

been seen by Macaskill alone. Indeed,

it was owing to the advice of his two

friends, Macaskill and Stewart, that

Forbes had resolved to publish his effu-

sions, and this dedicatory epistle shows

how highly he valued their opinion, and

how warmly he cherished their friend-

ship.


toasts, beginning with “ The University Maga,” and con-

cluding with “ Rule Britannia,” and a heavy penalty

lighted on the head of any member who evaded one of

these. Such at least was the tenor of the Rules,

though it does not appear that they were very strictly fol-

lowed. By degrees, indeed, their spirit greatly changed.

The “ good-fellowship” remained as strong as ever, but

its circle grew wider, and it became eventually almost

wholly a sympathy of head and heart in the pursuits and

professions of life.

But the great feature and boast of the Maga Club

was The University Maga. In the preparation of that

weekly sheet, the “ Magi” vindicated the first resolution

of their club—the cultivation of literature .

1

Here weary students, groaning under the dreariness

of lectures which they took small pains to follow, poured

out their wrath against the hapless professors. We have

1 The publication of such a magazine

was no new thing in the history of the

Edinburgh University. The following

passage occurs in No. vn. of the Univer-

sity Maga

“

Of the many [Univer-

sity] periodicals which have appeared

within a few years back, such as the

Lapsus Linguce, Heliconian Gazette,

College Observer, University Magazine,

Nemo, Anti-Nemo, Squib, and Univer-

sity Journal, three only have existed an

entire session, viz. : the first, the third,

and the fourth;whether the first paid

its expenses we cannot say;the third

barely did so;the fourth did not. All

varieties of style and matter were tried

to insure success;in the first, second,

and fifth, there was fun for a few cop-

pers;in the sixth and seventh they had

personality for ditto;in the third they

had serious literature for ditto;in the

fourth they had an excellent literary

magazine for a shilling;

in the fifth

mentioned they had literature and

science for sixpence : and these, too, at

all manner of periodical issuing, weekly,

twice a week, once a fortnight, monthly.

Nothing would do.” The starting of

the Maga revived the mania, and twoother journals appeared as its rivals

;

but they both died a natural death be-

fore the completion of the winter ses-

sion, while the Maga, after taking

weekly occasion to ridicule her compe-titors, held on triumphantly to the end.

The writer of the article from which the

foregoing passage is taken, nevertheless

confesses that the Maga had not been

supported as it ought. He concludes—“ Though the price be but a few pence,

yet will our beneficent brethren depute

one out of eveiy fifty to buy a number,in order that all may read. They enjoy,

but will not pay for their enjoyment.”Two sessions afterwards (viz., in 1837-38)

the Maga re-appeared once more in

greater vigour than ever, as we shall see

in a subsequent chapter.

192 MEMOIil OF CHAP. VII.

seen in a previous chapter that this kind of good-naturedrevenge suited the taste of Edward Forbes, and some of

the satirical verses are evidently by him. Some of the

es about College came in for their share of atten-

tion, paiticularly a Quaker pastry-cook in the vicinity,

who, under the cognomen of “ Margo Lata,” or Broad-

Brim, is made the subject of a doggrel Latin ode. TheMaga was first published on January 8, 1835, but bysome unlucky mischance, No. n. preceded No. i., which

did not appear till the next week. By way of apology,

it was gravely asserted that the parties concerned were

“indeed so glorious, that they might well be afflicted

with double vision, quaffing repeated bumpers in honour

of the birth of the illustrious and ever-to-be-renowned

Maga. But, friends, this is the real beginning, although

it appears as the continuation, and thus the continua-

tion is the beginning, and the beginning is the con-

tinuation.”

Every Thursday a new number was hawked about

the streets, and greedily devoured in the class-rooms.

To each was appended a sketch by Forbes of one of

the professors, or of some conspicuous individual of

the neighbourhood, and along with it some explana-

tory remarks, usually not of a very complimentary kind.

The verses on the “Anatomy Bill,” given above, p. 95,

were printed in the third number, and the pathetic

“ Vision of one going up,” quoted at p. 182, formed part

of No. ix.

The following passage from an article on the “ Decline

of Poetry about College,” in No. ix, is characteristic of

Forbes :—“ Wonderful to relate (or more classically,

1S34-35. EDWARD FORBES. 193

mirabile clictii), the sons of the scalpel send out moie

muse-enamoured gentlemen than all the other faculties

put together. Recollect, we allude only to our own

Alma. These rhyming Meds are the laziest race on

earth ;they hate their profession, and will not learn

any other;they love literature and science with their

whole soul, and look no farther for sustenance, or rather

they forget sustenance altogether in their search after

fame. They are all philosophers, metaphysicians, wits,

philologists, naturalists, in short, everything hut students

of their own profession;yet if a lawyer, or a divine, or a

man of figures ventures to attack physic and physicians,

they pepper him with a caustic defence, well worthy

of true sons of Esculapius. They seldom take their

degrees, for a simple reason—never being prepared. It

I

would be an easier matter for one of the tribe to pass

for advocate or minister than physician. But they are,

to a man, good fellows and clever fellows, the most

intellectual set in the known world.”

The editor of Blackwood's Magazine was regarded

by the writers of the Maga as a sort of tutelar deity ;

allusions, odes, and songs to Christopher North abound

throughout their pages;

to him the volume was finally

dedicated, and they have gone so far as to give a por-

trait of him at the end of No. iv. The likeness is by no

means flattering;—a disreputable-looking, bull-necked

man, with one hand thrust into his buttoned coat, the

other into his breeches pocket, gazes complacently at a

sheet of the Maga hanging from a board, and hawked

about by a still more disreputable Irishman.

The twelfth and last number was published on 26th

N

194 MEMOIR OE CHAP. VII.

March. It concludes with a “ View of the Symposium,”

after the “Noctes Ambrosian®,” consisting of songs, odes,

speeches, toasts, and merry-making, all rather weak,

except the last, which was doubtless as hearty as young

lungs and young hearts could make it. And so, after

all its squibs and satire and personality, the University

Maga ends as it began, in the most unbounded fun and

good-nature.

Through this gateway of satire and frolic Edward

Forbes entered into a higher and nobler fellowship. He,

as well as his companions, began to discover that, after

all, there must be some better co-operation than that

of mutually ridiculing the unpopular professors and

“snobbish” students; that “good fellowship” might

be the cementing bond of a union embracing all who

in literature, science, or art were striving to extend the

domain of truth, or to minister to the higher faculties

of their fellow-men. As week after week the Magaappeared, this feeling continued to gather strength,

until, on the 9th March 1835, the “Magi,” or members

of the Maga club, resolved to found a brotherhood for

mutual assistance and encouragement in their several

spheres of occupation. C. E. Stewart continued pre-

sident, “ Archi-Magus,” or “ Grand Master,” with Forbes,

Macaskfll, and Laughton, as his deputies. Canons were

framed for the government of the order and the admis-

sion of members. The words 0IN02, EPOS, MA0H2I2

(wine, love, learning) were adopted as the watchword. As

outward symbols of their union, the members wore across

the breast a narrow silk ribbon, rose-coloured and black,

with the mystic letters o. E. M. worked into its texture

;


also a small silver triangle with the favourite Greek triad

engraved thereon. Of these insignia, the triangle was

to be worn at all meetings of the Order, while the ribbon

was meant to be always visible across the breast. And

this rule was by some of the members, such as Forbes,

most conscientiously observed.

Such were the outward tokens of this union; its

spirit and aims may be gathered from a sketch drawn

out by Forbes, gradually modified and enlarged, and

afterwards printed as follows :—

“ The highest aim of man is the discoveiy of the

-jTruth

;the search after Truth is his noblest occupation.

It is more;

it is his duty. Every step onwards we take

in science and learning, tells us how nearly all sciences

are connected. There is a deep philosophy in that con-

nexion yet undeveloped; a philosophy of the utmost

moment to man : let us seek it out. The world in whichwe live is a beautiful world, and the Spirit of Omni-potence has given us many pleasures and blessings

;

;1 we not ^joy them ? Let us refresh ourselves withi them thankfully, whilst we go forth in our search afteri Truth. We are all brethren, but it has pleased Godf variously to endow our minds. Some delight in one'' thing, some in another. Some work for the good of the

body, and some for the good of the soul. Let us all


work together in fellowship for our mutual happiness

and joy. Wherefore should men quarrel one with

another, because they hold different doctrines? Such

as seek for Truth in the right spirit sympathize with

each other, and, however opposite may be their present

opinions, revile them not, but assist in their development,

knowing, however wide apart may seem the paths they

have chosen, one goal is aimed at, and if persevering,

both must meet in the one wished for temple. Let

those who feel the spirit to develop the Wisdom of

Creation, and to act for the good of then’ fellow-men,

strong within them, unite together in a bond of fellow-

ship, each Brother devoting his time and his energies to

the department for which he feels and proves himself

best fitted, communicating his knowledge to all, so that

all may benefit thereby, casting away selfishness, and

enforcing precepts of love. By such means glory shall

accrue to his order, so that it may wax powerful in

intellectual strength, and become a mental and a moral

safeguard to the world, and a bond of union among all

nations. Such is our Brotherhood.'’

The spirit of the Order, and the nature of the quali-

fications requisite for admission, are still further exhibited

in the subjoined canons which were printed and cir-

culated :—

“ This Brotherhood is a Union of the searchers after

Truth, for the glory of God, the good of all, and the

honour of the Order, to the end that mind may hold its

rightful sway in the world.

“ It is a Fellowship demanding of its Members earnest-

ness, ability, and philanthropy, and recognising among


them no distinctions of nation, party, rank, or pro-

fession.

“ Works done and approved, a sincere and loving

spirit, and the energy to act, are the qualities required

of the Candidate.

“ Love for the good and the beautiful is demanded of

the Brothers, as well as the determination to seek for

truth, and urge others to the search. Charity to all

earnest opinions, kindness to all living creatures, and

thankfulness for the blessings by which we are sur-

rounded, are inculcated on the Brethren.

“ Co-operation in research, assistance in danger and

adversity, advice and firm friendship, are extended by

the Brethren towards each other.

“ The Triangle, symbolical of learning, love, and fel-

lowship, and the Roseate Band, emblematical of their

union, are the outward signs by which the Brethren

recognise each other throughout the world.”

It would be out of place here to enter into the details

of the working of the Brotherhood;of its two grades,

“ Associates” selected with care from the outer world,

and adorned only with the ribbon and “ Triangles,” to

which the first was a preparatory stage;of its nine cere-

monial officers, “ Bearer of the Holy Triangle,” “ Bearer

of the Mystic Lyre,” “Bearer of the Banner of the Holy

Triangle,” etc., and an anomalous dignitary who flourishes

“The Holy Poker ;” 1of its ceremonies of admission,

its “ conclaves,” “ assemblages,” and “ meetings.” These1 From a protest of Macaskill in a most have guessed, was a sly joke of

letter to Forbes, it would seem that the Forbes’s own.addition of this title, as one might al-


things were only the outer shell, carefully enough attended

to at first, hut many of which became eventually ob-

solete. One feature, however, in connexion with one

of Forbes’s characteristics, deserves remark. We have

seen in the previous chapters what an affection he had

for a trinity of things, and how lovingly from his earliest

years he used to sketch the triangular symbol of his

native island. This fondness found ample field for its

exercise in the organization of the brotherhood, which,

doubtless, owed its form mainly to him. The Order was

founded on the ninth day of the third month, its symbol

was the triangle, its motto a triad, its ceremonial officers

nine, the hour of meeting three minutes past nine, and

so on.

For upwards of three years the Order had no definite

name. The discontinuance of the Maga, and the en-

larged spirit of the society, rendered the old name—“ Maga Club,” no longer appropriate. In some of their

papers it was styled “ the most powerful brotherhood, pro-

claiming itself by the words MA0H2I2, EPI22, 0IN02,” and

each document bore on its front the mystic triangle and

o. E. m. Hence they sometimes called themselves oinero-

matlis, and talked of their “ bosoms glowing with oinero-

matliic fire.” C. E. Stewart, however, on his return

from India in 1838 (he had quitted Edinburgh in

1835), denounced the term as “ a barbarous compound,'’

and proposed to adopt the title that had been suggested

by a Frenchfrater, M. Jalabert, “ The Universal Brother-

hood of the Friends of Truth.” This, accordingly, be-

came the recognised designation.

It required no great foresight to conjecture that the


appearance of a band of young men flaunting about

college with conspicuous red ribbons over their breasts,

understood, too, to hold secret conclaves (not, perhaps,

for the very best purposes), and evidently steeped in

freemasonry and mysticism, would be hailed with no

small amount of ridicule. That the ridicule did come,

is very evident from the language employed by the

leaders of the set, specially by Forbes, to solace the

brethren and vindicate the dignity of the Order. In one

of his addresses to them, he says : “A fancy regarding

us has gone abroad which it should ever be a duty on

our parts to combat, namely, the idea that our Order is

what is called a secret society, that we have passwords

and signs and mummeries, known only to ourselves, and

that initiation into our brotherhood is not merely the

union of one intellectual mind with another, for a noble

and an open purpose, but an introduction to secrets and

fancied mysteries of our own. Such a fancy is very

liable to be adopted by two very different classes of per-

sons, such as are imperfectly acquainted with our fellow-

ship and its objects, and such as have not the capacity

to comprehend our motives. The former class it be-

comes us to undeceive;the latter was formed to obey

;it

is our business to guide them to the truth.” And the

Archi-Magus triumphantly demands whether “ any one

real truth has ever yet been overthrown by a sneer.”

Notwithstanding these and other comfortable words,

however, we find traces of some delinquents whose“ oineromathic fire” had not been proof against the cold

breath of the world. Luckless brethren ! them nameswere unworthy of a place on the roll of the Universal

200 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. VII.

Brotherhood, and they descended once more into the

outer world !

In no point were the canons more strictly followed

than in the election of new members. A candidate had

to show, by actual work done, that he would be likely to

further the interests of the Order, and diligent inquiry

was made as to how far he had developed in him the

necessary spirit of geniality and good-fellowship. If he

failed in either of these respects, his election became

highly improbable. Even if elected, he only attained

the dignity of associate, and had to manifest fresh dili-

gence and zeal before he could be raised to the honour of

the mystic Triangle. The Brethren exercised a careful

vigilance over each other. All reports touching the good

name of anyjrater were rigorously investigated, and it

went hard with him if these reports turned out to be

true. Vice in every form lay under the ban, for they

were to be a band, not only of earnest workers, but of

honourable and virtuous men. Whatever was mean or

selfish stood in direct antagonism to that spirit of truth

which so essentially characterized the brotherhood.

One cannot fail to notice how typical of Forbes’s after

career were the spirit and aims of this society. Its aim

truly was a lofty one : its members were to devote

themselves to the high and onerous task of studying

and elucidating the wondrous world of Truth that lay

around them. To this, as to the central duty, all other

duties were to converge, and with this as its ultimate

end was every pursuit to be undertaken : it was, in

short, a kind of leaven, by which the whole life should be

influenced. The Order embraced students not only of


nature, but of medicine, of theology, of literature, of law,

of art;

all, indeed, who were willing to carry with them

into their profession, whatever that might be, the earnest

truth-loving spirit of the Order. Thoroughly catholic,

it knew no distinctions of rank or sect or nation;

it

aimed at breaking down all the barriers, social or other-

wise, which impede the free current and interchange of

sympathy, that thus all the separate and solitary rivulets

of inquiry and thought might at length flow into one

broad, deep river, onwards to the ocean of Truth. This

end, they believed, could be accelerated by a cordial co-

operation and sympathy in the pursuits of life, and hence

they bound themselves to regard each fellow-member as

a brother in whose welfare all were concerned, and whom,

in difficulty or distress, they were to counsel and assist.

And then, as the oil that kept all this machinery in easy

motion, there lay a hearty geniality and good-fellowship,

and an abhorrence of everything that came under the

designation of “ snobbish.” There was to be no scien-

tific cant amongst them. They believed that a man of

science might be as full of mirth and gaiety as any other

man, and that the search after truth to which they had

bound themselves, though doubtless a serious and onerous

pursuit, was nevertheless quite compatible with a keen

relish for all the amenities and socialities' of life.

Such was the spirit of the “ Universal Brotherhood

of the Friends of Truth and such, too, were some of

the leading features in the character of Edward Forbes.

That scientific Freemasonry seems indeed like a visible

manifestation of his inner spirit, his large-heartedness,

his love of truth, his geniality, his high views of the

202 MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. C1IAP. VII.

destiny of science, are all there behind an outward show

of mysticism, and a boyish love of oddity and display.

In the institution of this Brotherhood, to which he gave

so much of his time, he sounded, as it were, the key-note

of his scientific life, and in all his after career, amid new

scenes and new circles of friendship, it remained the

key-note to the end.

The after progress of the “ Brotherhood ” will be

noticed in subsequent pages. But before resuming the

narrative, where it was dropped at the end of the pre-

ceding chapter, we must turn to look at another of the

features which marked the five years of Edward Forbes’s

medical life.

CHAPTER VIII.

VACATION RAMBLES.

The summer classes at the University of Edinburgh

close about the end of July;the winter session does not

] commence till the beginning of November. Three full

months are thus at the student’s disposal, and precious

months they ever were to Edward Forbes. Released

from the duties of the class-room and the hospital, he

started off on long autumnal rambles, with a light heart,

a keen eye, and a ready pencil. His first vacation was

i: spent, as we have seen, in the Isle of Man, dredging its

bays, searching its shores, and roaming over its valleys

and hills, with the new light and enlarged information

gained at college. Next autumn witnessed a greatly

more venturous feat in a trip to Arendal, and a pilgrim-

age through part of Norway,—the first of his foreign tours.

It was towards the close of the session 1832-33 that

: Forbes and his fellow-student, the present Principal of the

University of Aberdeen, after a conversation on Inglis

(Derwent Conway) Norway,etc., resolved to visit Nor-

way during the ensuing summer. The voyage could

i easily be made, for every summer saw many timber-

vessels from Norway in the ports of Man, and it was

accordingly arranged that Mr. Campbell should spend a

204 MEMO III OF CIIAP. VIII.

short time with Forbes in the island, and then start withj

him for the north.

By daybreak, on Monday, 27th May 1833, the brig“ Patientia,” of Arendal, had weighed anchor and sailed

out of the port of Ramsay. Her two passengers, Forbes

and his friend, had carefully equipped themselves for a

scientific tour, by gleaning what they could learn as to

the natural history of the region to be visited, and by

taking with them a supply of botanical paper, boxes,

hammers, etc., and a goodly store of natural histoiy

information. Thus furnished, they began their observa-

tions from the time they stepped on board. Gurnards,

awks, gulls, solan geese, medusae, isopoda, grampuses,

porpoises, and other inhabitants of the deep, were duly

chronicled on the first day of the voyage, and no oppor-

tunity was lost, either by fishing-line, greased sounding-

lead, or gun, 1to gain new material for study. Adverse

:

winds kept them for a day or two beating about thei

Irish Sea, but a freshening breeze from the south eventu-

ally swept them pleasantly through the North Channel

into the Atlantic. The wild, bare island of Barra was

the first land sighted, and their course then lay through

the Minch, tacking between the chain of the Outer and

Inner Hebrides. But the mists lay thickly upon the\

hills, and the outlines of the islands were seldom seen,

save when a favouring breeze lifted the curtain for a

little, and showed a lonely expanse of grey barren rock

and long in-running bays. Dunvegan Head stood out

faintly in the haze, and though Forbes strained his eyes

1 He liad not yet made the dredge his though he had learned its use both in .

favourite instrument of research, al- the Firtli of Forth and in the Irish Sea.


to recognise the vast basaltic cliffs of which he had

heard, and amid which lived his friend Donald Macas-

kill, nothing distinct could be traced. Steering across

the Minch, they skirted the coast of Sutherland, with

the wild sea of mountains which forms its background.

Wreaths of cloud still drifted along the sides of the hills,

or hung upon their summits;but the sun shone out

brightly, and the chequered light and shadow flitting

across the landscape produced a powerful effect on the

imagination of the tourists. As they neared Cape

Wrath, however, the wind changed, and kept them

beating to and fro for several days ere they reached the

cliffs of Hoy. In this course they often approached the

shore near enough to make out the character of the

rocks. The horizontal sandstones of Caithness drewtheir especial attention, and as Forbes sat watchino- theocoast-lme here a mass of tall crags, there a declivity

sloping gently to the sea—he would fain have landed,

for “ there,” he thought, “ would be the habitat of thelovely and rare Primula Scotica, a plant whose fair

features I long to see holding a place amongst the

!

beauties of that vegetable harem, my herbarium.”

On the evening of Tuesday, 4th June, the wind had al -

Imost died away, and the “ Patientia ” crept slowly through

1 a glassy sea towards Hoy Head. The night of the North5 Sea in summer is like a lesser day, and hence, even at11 Hudnight the huge cliffs of the Orkneys, with the colos-j sal Old Man of Hoy, stood out clear against the sky.

1 Uncler tlie lee of tlle island they waited the turning of! the tide, which rushes with fury through the PentlanclFirth. But after crossing to Stroma, they found them-

20G MEMOIR OF CHAP. VIII.

selves too late, and liacl to lie under sail on the west side

of that island until evening ebb. Forbes begged to be

allowed to land, and was permitted two hours on shore,

and so, while the tide ran foaming and raging through

the narrows, he employed himself in trying how far it

was possible in two hours to exhaust the natural history

of Stroma. The flat sandstone beds, evidently a part of

the series of Hoy on the one side, and Dunnet Head on

the other, presented few geological features of interest,

save the caves and tunnelled caverns worn out by the

Atlantic breakers. The ledges were crowded with sea-

fowl, and the captain of the brig, who had maintained

that the awk built its nest on tangle floating in the sea,

was sent for, that he might have ocular proof that the

bird preferred a safer and more stationary nestling-place.

They collected forty-seven species of plants, and Forbes

in his notes remarks, that “ though he had not time to

make a complete catalogue, he still thought it worth

while to enumerate such as he met with, since, from the

situation of the island, at the northernmost part of Scot-

land, any list, however imperfect, is of importance, as

illustrating the geographical distribution of British

plants.” The entomological riches of the island were

not great ; no lepidoptera, the caterpillar of a phry-

ganeci, five species of coleoptera, one of which he con-

jectured “to be preyed upon by some other insect, as

under stones were great numbers of faded wing-cases.”

At seven o’clock in the evening they set sail again, shot

past John o’ Groat’s House, Huncansby Head, and the

Skerries, with their two light-houses, and out into the

North Sea.


After beating about for two days, the wind veered to

the west, the sun shone out upon a sea, “than which,

wrote Forbes, “ never was sapphire more lovely in its

blue,” and they dashed pleasantly onwards

“ To Norroway, to Norroway,

To Norroway, over tlie faem.”

During the night of Sunday, 9th June, they passed

the Naze, and on getting on deck next morning, “the

coast of Norway lay before me,” says Forbes, “ and for

the first time I beheld a foreign land, with the bright

prospect of soon setting foot on it.” Everything wore a

novel aspect, the thousand isles and interlacing fiords,

the endless undulations of the pine forests, the bare

rocky shores, without verdure or fields or fences, the

picturesque wooden houses nestling in an occasional

green hollow, or perched on some almost inaccessible

ledge, with the dark woods overhanging it and sweeping

away inland. Within a few miles of Arendal a pilot

came on board, and guided them through the labyrinth

of channels into the fiord of Arendal. Of this fiord

Forbes writes, “Never did I behold a more beautiful

scene, perhaps more beautiful to me since it was per-

fectly new in every respect.”

Ten days were spent at Arendal. The owner of the^ “ Patientia, ’ Mr. Hans Dedekam, an old correspondent

of Forbes s father, welcomed the young travellers to

' Norway. Dinner-parties, excursions, botanical rambles,

‘ strolls through the town, and boating in its fiords, fully

occupied the time, and Forbes’s keen powers of observa-

tion had ample scope both in the new natural history; worl(* that was opening upon him, and not less in

208 MEMOIR OF CHAP. VIII.

the new phases of dress, manners, and society, whichevery day met his eye. Hence in his notes, notices of

plants, insects, minerals, and rocks, are interblended withremarks upon the peculiarities of his breakfast, of his

hostess, the custom of bowing and hat-raising to every

one in the streets, the nature of Norwegian dinner-par-

ties, dress of the peasants, etc. One costume struck

him as “extremely ridiculous. A hat with a workedband and a very narrow brim is their head-dress

; but

the whimsicality is the jacket, which is very little morethan two sleeves connected together by a piece of em-

broidered cloth peaked in front. Consequently, the

trousers are buttoned round their necks, so that they

look like a head with two legs and no body. Dandyism

amongst them consists in the shortness of the jacket.”

Among the excursions from Arendal was one to the

iron-works at Naes, a distance of about fourteen miles.

The journey was to be made in carioles, gigs seated for

one individual, but the precipitous look of the roads

determined Forbes to go on horseback, a mode of travel-

ling, however, from which every one in vain endeavoured

to dissuade him. In his notes of this journey the iron-

works are dismissed in a couple of lines, but he dwells

at greater length on a dinner-party where, to his sur-

prise, the ladies and gentlemen sat on different sides,

and regaled themselves with a soup made of red currants

and sago, seasoned with raw salt-herrings, anchovies,

and pickled salmon, completing the meal by a slice of

lamb. He chronicles also having seen a copy of the

Flora Danica, where a plant which had puzzled him

was given as Gonvallaria bifolia

;

but, he adds, “ surely


if a genus may be instituted, this should form the type

of a new one;in no respect is it a Gonvcdlcincc. Though

pressed to remain a day. or two at Naes, they were all

such figures with mud, etc., that they could not in

decency remain.” Accordingly, they returned by the

same road, the precipitous character of which Forbes

shows in a rough sketch, where, down a pine-covered

declivity almost vertical, he and his companion are shoot-

ing like avalanches after the guide and another cariole,

which, by the impetus of its descent, is still galloping

over the lower ground.

On reaching Norway they had no settled route before

them, but this was soon arranged when they heard that

a steamer was about to sail northward along the coast.

On the afternoon of the 19th June, after packing up the

plants and minerals collected during then* rambles, and

i bidding adieu to their Arendal acquaintances, they took

i passage in the steamer “ Constitutionen " for Bergen.

They chose this route, inasmuch as the vessel called at

every town on the way, and always remained in port at

night, so that they would thus have a favourable oppor-

tunity of becoming acquainted with the maritime aspect

of the country. The deck was crowded with passengers,

i among whom Forbes found M. Blytt, lecturer on Botany

in the University of Christiania, who, with one of his

j students, was about to explore the botany of the coast

1 between Stavanger and Bergen. Two nights and a day

were spent at Christiansand, the day in botanizing, and

the second evening in a visit to the theatre to hear “ two

of the most famous Danish actors, Nilsen and Winslow.”

t The next day brought them past the Naze, along intri-

o


cate channels, and even through the centre of villages,

to Egersund, where they anchored for the night. The

ascent of a hill here satisfied Forbes that the vegetation

was now “ decidedly (sub-) alpine,” and as the flush of

sunset spread over the wide expanse of pine forest and

barren rock, he marked not a few of the hill-tops capped

with snow. At Stavanger they visited the old church,

had a fine view of the distant mountains, remarked that

the rock was chiefly gneiss with a little mica-slate, and

saw a large gneiss boulder which measured roughly

thirty paces in circumference, and above eighteen feet

in height. In the voyage from Stavanger the hills grew

higher and still barer as the vessel advanced northward

;

about mid-day the distant snow-fields of the Folgefonden

appeared in sight, and towards evening the travellers

“ gladly, amidst great crowds and honours, landed in

Bergen, the largest city in Norway.”

The “ crowds and honours” were due to the festivi-

ties of St. John’s day. The peasantry parading the

streets in every variety of costume afforded no little

merriment, but the tables were soon turned, for Forbes

adds, “ C. and I happening to have tartan trousers on,

we attracted a mob in no long time, and the people

seemed as much surprised at our dress as we were at

theirs.” During the intervals of fair weather, botany

and conchology as usual filled up the hours;

1 some ex-

cursions were also made, as to Lysfiord, and to the

country-seat of a merchant to whom they had letters of

introduction. After a stay of a week, they left Bergen

i In one of his articles in the Mag. tity of shell-sand -which I found in a

Nat. Hist, he says,“ Amongst my Ber- spitting-box in my lodgings,” viii. 305.

gen treasures I especially value a quan-


on foot for Oos, about seventeen miles distant, with the

view of visiting the glaciers of Bondhuus.

The rough nature of the roads, and the increasing

weight of their knapsacks, made pedestrian travelling no

easy matter. “ It was our first decided tramp under the

knapsack in Norway; and what with our bags, and

hammers, and botanical boxes, and books, we were pretty

well loaded, not forgetting boards enclosing the paper to

dry our plants in.”1 By dint of walking and boating,

however, they eventually arrived at Bondhuus. “ Weproceeded,” says Forbes, “ on horseback without saddles

to the glacier, a distance of about seven miles, over a

most rugged country covered with immense masses of

rock flung down in all directions from the mountains;

after crossing a lake formed by the melting of the ice,

we arrived at the glacier. The sight was most beautiful

;

1 the undulations of the ice of great height, and the lovely

I blue colour from reflected light, presented a fine coup

d’ceil. This glacier forms part of Folgefond, but is dimin-

ishing yearly, and twelve years ago was several hundred

yards from its present limits. Around it, amongst the

rocks, were some fine cascades formed by the melting of

the snow above. At the foot of the glacier grew Ceras-

tium alpinum and aquaticum, Silene rupestris, Saxi-

* fraga stellaris and caespitosa,Phleum alpinum.” 2

From Bondhuus they sailed up the Hardanger Fiord,

|

among huge cliffs plunging almost sheer down from the

1 region of perpetual snow into the quiet waters of the

fiord. They visited the Voring Voss, walked, climbed,

I Mag. Nat. Hist. vm. 306. years afterwards, conducted ProfessorII Their host at Bondhuus was the James Forbes to the glacier.—Norway

1 same John Bondhuus who, eighteen and its Glaciers, p. 134.

212 MEMOIR OF CHAP. VIH.

boated, botanized, and every day were soaked with rain.

On Sunday, the 7th July, Forbes writes :—“ Our clothes

had been soaked through in our knapsacks, and we had

no dry change, our paper was soaked with water, and

our plants were rotting in our boxes. The clothes wehad on had not been quite dry for five days running,

and yet, through Providence, we are quite well, and I

myself was never in better health. Accordingly, we

prepared to rest ourselves for a day. After putting up

my plants, I took a stroll around Graven, and found

Circcea alpina growing in a neighbouring wood.” These

botanical notes come in often in a characteristic way.

Tired, wet, or hungry, he yet must needs turn aside to

gather something for his herbarium, and sometimes in

describing the most magnificent scenery he suddenly

drops into a quiet parenthesis that Silene rupestris, or

Origanum vulgare, grows on the rocks of the neighbour-

hood. Crossing the mountainous country between the

Hardanger and the Sogne Fiords, they ascended to the

head of the Lyster Fiord, whence their route lay across

the vast snowy range of the Sogne Field. This was a

journey of no little difficulty;and to accomplish it in

safety they had to forego their usual mode of pedestrian

travelling, and cross the mountains on horseback. “ On

one occasion,” says Dr. Campbell in reference to tins

journey, “ we were waiting for horses, and were in danger,

a rare danger among the worthy Norwegians, of being

hustled and ill-used by some half-drunken boors return-

ing from a market, from whom, as it was raining in

torrents, we could not escape. Forbes’s talent as a

draughtsman stood us in good stead. Snatching up a


piece of chalk, he sketched with great rapidity on the

door of the inn striking caricatures of one or two noisy

fellows who had just left the party, and changed the

rudeness of the others into good-humoured laughter and

civility.”

The change from pedestrianism to horsemanship

proved in the end productive of an unforeseen difficulty.

On descending into the valleys leading into the rich dis-

trict of Gulbransdal, they found that they had neglected

to change a sufficient amount of English sovereigns at

Bergen. Then- Norwegian money had now begun to

fail. In vain they tried to reimburse themselves at Lomb

:

they were told that there would be little chance of suc-

cess before reaching Lillehammer, a journey of about one

hundred and twenty English miles, to meet the expenses

of which their common fund of available cash amounted

to five shillings sterling. Forbes thus describes the first

day’s travel under these straitened circumstances

“July 14 .— Our cash after paying our bill, which

amounted to two marks, was only about five English

shillings. With a sad prospect, a fine morning, and a

heavy load on our backs, we departed from Lomb, and

walked (I must confess rather dull) along the side of its

beautiful lake. Our dinner was but scanty, consisting

of some slices of bread, and a little piece of dried beef

i which we had pocketed from breakfast. Towards night-

1 fall we began to think of a bed, and, in order to save our' cash f°r the high road, we prepared to rest in the open•' air, and built a hut of sticks to shield us from the dew.1 Supperless we went to bed, if I may so call the spreadingi out of our boards, knapsacks, etc.

;it was rather cold,


but we contrived to have a little sleep for about two and

a half hours, when we arose about one o’clock in the

morning to proceed on our journey until the sun should

heat the air, when we proposed to conclude our sleep.’’

They gained the post road to Christiania near Froen,

and by dint of rigid economy and resolute walking

reached Lillehammer on the evening of the fifth day,

having walked, heavily laden, about twenty-four miles a

day. At one stage they begged a night’s lodging from

the parish priest, but were directed, in bad Latin, to pro-

ceed two miles farther to the inn. Thither, accordingly,

they trudged with gloomy anticipations;the innkeeper,

however, received them kindly, and the day following a

captain in the Norwegian army carried then baggage to

the next stage. On entering Lillehammer they had only

twelve skillings (fivepence farthing) left, but speedily

replenished their stock by exchanging three English

sovereigns. Remaining a day or two at that town to

recruit, they again started off, and in three days reached

Christiania. Here they found their boxes waiting them

from Arendal, and they were thus able to doff the “ tar-

tans” and “ appear in clothes without holes.”

The first day at Christiania was spent in making

calls. In the evening they went with Professor Rathke

to the Botanic Gardens. Forbes criticises their arrange

ment, and remarks upon the defectiveness of the Herba-

rium,,and the want of care in the selection both of plants

and paper. “ There is one thing wanting,” lie says,

“ namely, a good collection of Norwegian plants. ’ Seve-

ral natural history excursions, varied by rambles through

the city, a visit to the Storthing, dinner-parties, and con


versations with some of the Professors, altogether made

the sojourn at Christiania a very pleasant one.

Dr. Campbell has furnished the following incident of

the sojourn in Christiania :

—“ I remember/’ he says,

“ one morning being awakened very early by a low

murmuring noise— a strange unearthly chanting. On

opening my eyes I beheld Forbes, in the grey dawn, half

dressed, swaying himself backwards and forwards in a

chair, and pouring forth in cadence with the motion of his

body a stream of octo-syllabic verses, which had a mingled

savour of Scott and Tennyson, in the form of an address

to some fairy of his imagination. The occasion was too

I

good to be lost. I gave no sign of being awake, and

stuffing my mouth stealthily with the bed-clothes, listened

in breathless attention until the unmeaning extravagance

of the sentiment, arid the desperate efforts of the impro-

)

visatore to conform, without stopping, to the exigencies

of rhyme and metre, brought on me an uncontrollable

fit of laughter. As happens at cock-crowing, Forbes’s

fairy vanished, the Canto came abruptly to an end, and

after his confusion had subsided, we laughed together

r over the occurrence.”

After remaining a week at Christiania they proceeded

onwards to Copenhagen. Their route lay by Dra.ru

m

en

and Kongsberg, where they remained to see the silver

mines, to Holmestrand. Thence the packet conveyed

them to Gottenborg, where they spent a few days sight-

seeing and making excursions. From Gottenborg the

steamer carried them through the Cattegat past Elsinore,

which Forbes declared to be “ no more like Castle Kushen

in Man (to which it had been compared) than a dog is


like a donkey.” On the evening of the 14th August,

they landed at Copenhagen.

This city, with its wide squares and numerous

public buildings, palaces, churches, picture-galleries,

museums, parks, rampart promenade, and many other

objects of interest, seems to have delighted the artistic

eye of Forbes. Here he met Hornemann the botanist,

and went over the Botanic Garden and Library. Anexcursion to the country-seat of an acquaintance in the

city enabled him to see a httle of the country around.

After a few days spent in Copenhagen and the neigh-

bourhood, they proceeded to Elsinore, to take their

passage in vessels bound for England. Forbes secured

a berth in one which was about to sail for Hull, his

companion in one for Leith. The wind being unfavour-

able they employed themselves in visiting the castle of

Kronberg, botanizing by the way. Leaving Forbes on

a hill-side, Mr. Campbell returned to make some pre-

parations for them departure. The wind had changed,

vessels were getting ready to sail, and he had only time

to hurry on board, and despatch a messenger for Forbes.

It was too late, however. Forbes got back in time to

catch his own vessel, but the other had sailed, and the

fellow-travellers did not meet again for eighteen years.

In a letter written by Forbes to Mr. Campbell after

his return to the Isle of Man, he thus describes the

voyage home :

—“ Of course you got your share of that

dreadful storm which is said to have destroyed one-fifth

of the East of England shipping. We were just cutting

the stick, but, thanks to Providence, arrived safe at port,

as you may guess when you see this letter. One tre-


fi

mendous sea was nearly sinking us, but, luckily, carried

away the bulwarks, which accident saved us. Captain

Wilson was washed overboard, but was miraculously

saved by catching hold of a cable, one-half of which

was also floating. The mate was washed into the cabin,

and I was set afloat in my berth. After that not a man

could stand on the deck by himself;they all got hold of

the rigging and stood there, and the helm was lashed,

and a little sail only was flying. I got my head above

the door to see the storm, and heard the consoling ob-

servation that the ship could not live in such a sea. Abody and many pieces of wreck which floated by, told

a sad tale of some.

“ But melancholy, avaunt ! and now for the pleasures

of the voyage. Few must be the pleasures in such

weather, but there was one, and that was good fare.

We had roast ducks in the worst of the storm, and a

rice-pudding when the sea threatened to swallow us up;

and the captain and cook seemed determined that we

should not go to heaven with empty stomachs. For mypart, thank God, I had an excellent appetite. The

captain, too, and his mate, and, I believe, the whole

crew, were all staunch Tories, which was another com-

fort .

1It was on the Thursday morning after we started

that we gladly and thankfully saw the shores of “ Merrie

England " again. But shipwrecks strewed them like

sea-weeds.”

The botanical results of this Norwegian tour were1 The democratic spirit, so wide spread

at the time of the Reform Bill, whichseemed to Forbes about to subvert all

that was most intimately associated

with the greatness of Britain, and to

supplant the love of science and abstract

truth by a spirit of utter utilitarianism,

had impressed his mind with a strong

conservative feeling, which he retained

to the close of his life.

218 MEMOIR OE chap. vm.

written out eighteen months afterwards, and published

in short papers in the Magazine of Natural History for

1835-36. These are remarkable chiefly as indicating

a habit of close observation, and a considerable acquaint

ance with specific forms, and, above all, an ardent, en

thusiastic love of the science. We can mark, however,

that Forbes’s mind was beginning to dwell on the geo-

graphical distribution of plants, and that these rambles

were paving the way for that enlarged philosophy

of distribution developed in his later writings.

The summer of 1834 appears to have been mainly

spent in dredging the Irish Sea, and continuing the

exploration of the botany, zoology, and geology of the

Isle of Man. The results of the dredgings were given in

the Magazine of Natural History for the following year.1

Ten days in the early part of August were passed in

North Wales, and in that excursion, of which some

meagre jottings occur in one of his note-books, Forbes

appears, to have done little else than botanize. Old

castles, lakes, hill-tops, and fine scenery, were visited as

they happened to come in his way, but his main object

was to gather as many of the rarer plants as he could.

His notes consist chiefly of lists of the species collected.

No occasion was lost, and many a plant was noticed

and chronicled while driving rapidly along on the mail.

His zeal, indeed, rises to a climax at the last, for we

find that on the evening preceding the only remaining

day he had to spend in Wales, he resolved to start next

morning, at four o’clock, by the mail to Holyhead, to

get some of the rare plants found there. He was espe-

1 Man. Nat. Hist., Scr. 1.. vhi. 68, 501;is. 101.


cially anxious to obtain Cistus guttatus,“ But, aftei a

heavy stroll up cliff and down cliff, and over the hill in

all directions, I found nothing ! ! ! and set oft to Bangoi

with a heavy heart and a long walk of twenty-six miles

before me, in addition to my ramble of eight at the

least.” The failure of his journey, however, did not

abate the keenness of his botanical vision, for, in the

next sentence, he mentions that in that weary tramp

to Bangor he found by the road-side Butomus umbellatus,

Lepidium Smithii,and Sparganium simplex. And so,

with well-filled boards, he sailed again to the Isle of

Man, where he appears to have remained until—towards

the close of October—he set out for Edinburgh to com-

mence his fourth year at college.

The summer of 1835 Forbes employed in a tour

through France, Switzerland, and Germany, and gained

thereby more natural history information, and achieved

more original results than any of his previous excursions

had yielded. In the early part of June in that year

he started for Paris, and remained there three weeks.

The notes which he made of this sojourn contain many

criticisms of the public buildings, palaces, churches,

sculpture, paintings, etc., along with some enthusiastic

encomiums on the Jardin des Plantes. On the second

day of his visit we find him quitting his sight-seeing

to start off* with Jussieu and his botanical class for a

two days’ ramble round Mont Morenci. Forbes’s eye,

keener than ever, seemed to detect, almost intuitively,

every rarer species, whether of plant or insect, and the

contrast between this quickened power of observation

and that of his French companions seems to have struck


even himself, for he concludes his notes of the- excursion

by remarking that “ the French students are apparently

but poor botanists, though fond of it, and though they

have such opportunities.” He made one or two other

botanical excursions from Paris, accompanied by some

of his old college friends who were studying there at the

time. But his delight was to repair to the Jardin des

Plantes, and pore for hours together over the specimens

in the Museum, and some of the volumes in the Library.

On the 16th he writes :—“ Spent the day at the Library

of the Jardin des Plantes, consulting Ferussac, etc.;

every book being at one’s service. The Museum is, after

the Louvre, the finest thing in Paris. Every part be-

speaks the hand and head of a Cuvier;everything in

order and approaching perfection, especially the fishes,

which must be the finest set in the world—the birds

also. I revelled principally among the molluscs, and

saw many which I had long wished to see, such as the

Trichotropis, the Mcigelus, etc. Hour after hour passes

away there without perception. In the evening I went

to the Tuileries.” Again, on the 19th, he says, “studied

in the library of the Museum, and in the Museum itself

all the day, chiefly consulting Ferussac’s great work,

and following up his illustrations in the collection.

The more I see of the Museum, the more admirable

it appears.” On the 23 d, he feels that he ought to be

setting out for Switzerland, but a lingering wish to

finish his inspection of the Museum and the Louvre

keeps him still in Paris, and so the whole of that day

was spent in the Museum and Library. The results of

these days of continuous study are partly apparent in


>!

the copious extracts at the end of his note-book, from

some of 13e Rlainville’s papers on the Mollusca, Drapar-

naud’s Mollusques terrestres et jiuviatiles cle la France,

with sketches of the species, several pages of extracts

from Menke's Synopsis Metliodica, and quotations from

Leach, Zool. Jour. vol. ii. These notes, of course, re-

present also a careful inspection of the genera and species

as displayed in the Museum. We shall see in a sub-

sequent chapter how strongly these days at the Jardin

des Plantes impressed Forbes with the educational ad-

vantages of Paris to a student of Natural History, and

how materially they influenced his own subsequent

career.

Having “ bought a knapsack of the best quality, and

stocked himself with Paludina achatina, and Neretina

littoralis, also with Carabus auratus, the commonest and

most beautiful insect about Paris,” he completed his col-

lections by a botanical excursion to the islands of the

Seine, “a capital day’s work.” Next day he obtained

his passports, took his place in the diligence for Dijon,

“ spent the greater part of the day in the Library,” and

started oft1

on the following morning (3d July) on his

way to Geneva.

He remained a day at Dijon, botanizing among the

surrounding hills. He says, “ Unfortunately I have no

guide at present to identify the beautiful plants I

gathered, not one of which I knew.” 1 In Conchology, I

was exceedingly fortunate, finding the Cyclostoma macu-

1 The italics are his own. It mayhe remarked, once for all, that Forbes’s

handwriting, even at this early period,

is sometimes scarcely legible. The

scientific names are especially indistinct,

being sometimes hardly more than oneor two letters connected by a steno-

graphic dash.


lata of Draparnaud, with Pupa --,and Glausilia .

In Entomology I found but little” On the evening of

the 7th, he arrived at Geneva.

With some English fellow-travellers he sailed up the

lake, and, baggage on back, started for Martigny, a walk

of twenty four miles, from the effects of which he suffered

next day. His route then lay up the picturesque valley

of the Ehone to Sion, whence he diverged to the left,

crossing the mountain range by the pass of Gemmi, and

noting on the way “ many good insects, plants, and shells,

and very splendid scenery.” At the little inn of Schwar •

enbach, he parted company with the tourists, and re-

mained two days “ botanizing, and got many of the

rarest plants of Switzerland.” In the ascent of the

mountains he had kept a constant eye on “ the progress

of Alpine vegetation,” and in the journey down to Inter-

laken, he particularly directed his attention to the vertical

range of the land shells. Under date “14th July,” he

records the species noticed, and on the opposite page

gives a rough diagram of the Alps, with the comparative

heights at which the species occurred. These data were

afterwards expanded into a separate paper,1 the earliest

of his writings in which he has shown his love for an

arrangement of the organic productions of land and sea,

in distinct zones, according to their recession from the

sea-level. From Interlaken he visited the Grindelwald,

which he thought less beautiful than the glacier of Boncl-

huus in Norway ;then Lauterbrunnen, where he pro-

cured some insects, and saw “ decidedly the most

picturesque place in Switzerland.” Returning to Inter-

1 Mag. Zool. and Bot. 1837, I. 257.


laken, lie crossed the Lake of Thun, and so down the

valley of the Aar to Berne, where he remained for a

week with an. English friend who had a farm near the

town.

From Berne he returned, with some Swiss botanists,

to Interlaken, ascended the Faulhorn, and obtained there

some of the rarest plants of the Alps. He also found

many Alpine insects, and fixed the limits of Cyclas as

the highest bivalve (7000 feet). On the 21st, he went

to Aarau, to attend the meeting of the Helvetic Society,

a gathering of scientific men like our own British Asso-

ciation. There he met “the excellent botanist, Smidt,

and many other eminent men.” From Aarau his route

by diligence lay by Basle, Freyburg, and Carlsruhe to

Heidelberg, a journey which, as he makes no notes of it,

save a few cursory headings, he seems to have continued

without intermission. One incidental notice of the

journey, however, and the longest of the number, is as

follows :—

“ Naturalists and philosophers the same at

Aarau as at every other place—good eaters and drinkers.”

Heidelberg detained him a day, spent partly in sight-

seeing, partly in writing home, and partly, of course, in

botanizing in the suburbs. He there “ procured the

excellent critical catalogue of German or rather European

plants by Reichenbach.” His journey down the Rhine

from Mayence was somewhat hurried;with the scenery

he was “ on the whole disappointed.” Descending as

rapidly as the mud-banks would allow, his “ whole

amusement consisting in the fellow-passengers, in the

few specimens of thorough Dutchmen who now and then

came on board, striking aground, and catching fish,” he

224 MEMOIR OR CHAP. VIII.

llil

arrived in Rotterdam, whence, after sticking twenty-four

hours on a Dutch mud-bank, he reached London in the

beginning of August.

It is time now to return to where the narrative was

dropped at the end of the sixth chapter.

CHAPTER IX.

,

1

c

HIS FIRST YEARS AS A PROFESSED NATURALIST.

The spring of 1836 saw Edward Forbes finally re-

nounce medicine, and devote himself formally to the

study of nature. Released from the ties that had re-

strained him so long, he was free to choose his own

course, and his thoughts at once adverted to the Jarclin

des Plantes, where he had spent so many delightful hours

in the summer of the previous year, and to which he

had inwardly resolved to return at the first opportunity.

Accordingly, he arranged that the following winter should

be spent in Paris. Till then he employed himself partly

in what he calls “ an oineromathic mission” to his friend

Macaskill in Skye, partly in a trip to Bristol, to attend

a meeting of the British Association, and lastly, in a

sojourn of a few weeks at the Isle of Man. The note-

book which he kept during the tour to the Hebrides

is a meagre, and often hardly-legible, series of jottings

of scenery, inns, and botanical localities, with some

verses on Linnhe Loch, and numerous rough pencil-

sketches of old castles, lakes, and hills;

also manyfemale faces, a fair damsel rescued by “ an oineromath”

from the grasp of a giant, interblended with the outlines

of fishes, mollusca, and trap-dykes. Of this journey he

p

226 MEMOIE OF CHAP. IX.

writes to Dr. Percy, “Bad weather caused it to be a

failure, so far as botany went.” In the same letter he

adds, “ In August I went to the meeting of the British

Association at Bristol, and was much pleased, meeting

with much kindness, and making many most valuable

scientific friends. I picked up two or three tolerable

plants about Bristol.”

He left the Isle of Man about the close of November,

and set out for Paris, with the view of spending the

winter there among the classes and collections of the

Sorbonne and of the Jardin des Plantes.

Unfortunately the details of Ins Paris life are but

scantily preserved. The only account of this winter

which it has been possible to recover is contained in a

letter from Forbes to his father, which runs as follows :

“ Hotel be Corneille, Paris, nth Dec . 1836.

“ My dear Father,—Since I arrived here I have

been in very good health. In general the change of

diet and manner of living does not agree so well with

British students in their first month or so. The day

after I wrote to you, I took rooms in the hotel from

which I direct this letter, for which I pay forty-five

francs a month. I am in the students’ quarter, and in

the midst of the colleges and lecture-rooms on the left

bank of the Seine. I am on the look-out, however, for

st pension or boarding-house, where I might live more

comfortably and cheaper, though a good one on this side

of the river is verv difficult to be found. Since I arrived

here I have met with several acquaintances, formerly

fellow-students at Edinburgh, who are equally puzzled

as to the best way of residing here. The worst of living


in lodoino's is, that however wet the day may he, you

must walk out to get every meal (except breakfast mmy case, though, in general, that must he taken in a

cafe also), often to a considerable distance \and, aftei

trying many places and many ways, it is impos-

sible to get a dinner under from thirty-two sous to

two francs, without running the risk of eating unwhole-

some food.

“ My daily and weeldy occupations are as follows—on Monday and Thursday I have no lectures to attend,

which is very convenient, as the Natural History Library

and the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes are open for

study on those days as well as on Saturdays. On Tues-

days and Saturdays I have Natural History and Com-

parative Anatomy 1lectures to attend. On Wednesday

and Friday I have geological and mineralogical classes.

The lecturers here do not, as in Edinburgh, confine them -

>i selves to one hour, but lecture at will, generally from

one hour and a half to two hours. I understand the

lectures thoroughly, and, in general, all French con-

versation, but further than asking questions and express-

ing my wants, I cannot speak the language with any

facility as yet. My difficulty lies in not being able to

construct sentences quick enough, and not in the pro-

nunciation. Several of my student friends here, how-

ever, speak French as fluently as they speak English,

and one of them has just been appointed to a botanical

lectureship in a college lately established at Comines in

the French Pyrenees. His salary is, to be sure, very

1 De Blainville at the Sorbonnc, and Gcoffroy-Saint-Hilaire at tlic Jardin desPlantes.

228 MEMOIR OF CI1A1’. IX.

small— (between £30 and £40 a year);but the oppor-

tunity of discovery, and the facilities the district affords

to the naturalist, being comparatively unexplored, more

than compensate for the extent of remuneration.

“The weather here has prevented my making any

geological excursions as yet;

for, though warm—as warmindeed as our autumn—it has been very wet, and it is

next to impossible to walk in the country in France in

wet weather;but, as soon as the frost comes, I expect

a rich harvest, as the geology of the neighbourhood of

Paris is probably the most interesting in Europe, being

peculiar and unique, and the rocks, even at the very

gates of the city, abound in rare and beautiful fossils.

The river has been so swollen, in consequence of the

late rains, as to overflow its banks, and inundate all

the lower part of Paris, so that the inhabitants of that

quarter communicate with each other by means of

boats. Much damage has been done, and the country

beyond Paris to the west is like a great lake.”

Having completed the winter course at the Jardin

des Plantes, he planned a trip by Perpignan through

the south of France, and left Paris at noon on the 21st

of April. Of this tour there is a record in a small

duodecimo note-book, each day’s doings being meagrely

and often illegibly jotted down, as if the writer had

dashed them off in the most urgent haste with the point

of a skewer.

From Paris he took diligence southwards by Auxerre

and Chalons to Lyons, botanizing on the way when the

steepness of the road allowed the passengers an oppor-


tunity to walk. Taking the steamer he sailed down the

Rhone to Avignon, thoroughly enjoying the scenery of

that river, which he was inclined to rank higher than

that of the Rhine. In the southward journey he had

noted the gradual change of vegetation, and now he

exclaims, “ I find myself truly in the land of the cypress

and myrtle, the olive and the vine, for here they are all

in profusion.” Again, “ Yaucluse is a singularly wild

spot, and worthy of Petrarch—the rocks bare and bold,

the font a miniature lake, clear as crystal and tinted

like the sapphire. The water appears in a mysterious

manner, as the poet would deem it, coming in quantities

from the rocks without betraying its passage. There is

inspiration about Yaucluse.“ There is also natural history. Plants unknown

to me abound;euphorbias of many forms, many a novel

< species which had never gladdened my sight before, and

i; the genus of which to me was but a guess. But there

was not one daisy there.”

After spending a week in the south of France,

visiting the towns and other objects of interest, it had

been his intention to proceed thence to Perpignan with

Mr. Giles Munby, one of his old fellow-students at Edin-

burgh. On the morning of the 30 th, however, he found,

at the poste restctnte of Montpellier, a letter from his

friend, announcing his inability to proceed. This wholly

deranged our naturalist’s plans. Whilst revolving in his

mind what route to take, Dr. Lumsden, a medical

student fiom 1 aris, who knew him by name, but whowas unknown to Forbes, chanced to make Iris appear-ance. After a short conversation, the two travellers

230 MEMOIR OF ciiap. ix.

made common cause, and agreed to go either to Algiers

or Corsica.

\ isiting Arles and Marseilles by the way, they

reached Toulon, and found there Dr. Otth, a Swiss

naturalist, who had been a fellow-traveller with Forbes

to Avignon. He was likewise bound for Algiers, so that,

on the morning of the 7th May, the three travellers set

sail in company for the shores of Africa, in a French

war-steamer, crowded with troops and officials. On the

afternoon of the next day they reached Port Mahon in

Minorca, the half-way resting-place, and remained there

over night. Forbes was charmed with the novel and

almost eastern aspect of the architecture, the picturesque

dress of the natives, the variety of shipping in the ports,

and the strange towering windmills that everywhere met

the eye, each rising out of a dense thicket of cactus, with

here and there a palm,—plants that gave a truly exotic

character to the landscape, and were now for the first

time seen as indigenous by Edward Forbes.

A night and a day on the Mediterranean brought

the vessel far on her way. On the morning of the 1 0th,

the high snow-capped range of Mount Atlas came in

sight, and then slowly the coast of Algeria revealed its

narrow strip of richly cultivated ground, which, ending

off abruptly but a few miles from the town, told only

too plainly of the wild lawlessness of the interior. Then

came the port of Algiers itself, with its crowds of eager

boatmen, its Babel-like confusion of tongues, its endless

variety of costumes,—Moors, Turks, Arabs, Negroes,

Greeks, and Europeans,—naval, military, and civil.

From the 10th of May to the 10th of June, Forbes


remained in Africa. He made many excursions through

the town of Algiers, and into the territory around it, as

well as eastward by steamer as far as Bougia, visiting

mosques, synagogues, bazaars, cafes—Moors, Jews, Arabs,

Bedouins—and never omitting, at the same time, an

opportunity of noting the natural-history features of the

country. They met with no adventure worthy of note,

and saved their purses and their heads among the bands

of Arabs whom they encountered.

On the 10th of June, Forbes left Algiers, and reached

Paris on the 29th. On getting there he wrote to his

father :

—

“ I arrived here two days ago from my southern tour,

having spent more time in Africa than I intended. I

returned by way of Toulon, Marseilles, the Basses Alpes,

Grenoble, and the mountains of Dauphine,—all very

; interesting localities to the naturalist, and in which

<places I made many acquisitions both in botany and

zoology. At Marseilles I found the money. I was

much in want of it, as I had run short in consequence

of an unfortunate accident which I met with at Bougia

(which place I also visited while in Africa), having lost

six Napoleons in a Moorish well while botanizing, and

having been at the same time in great danger of losing

myself along with them. But though my voyage to

Africa has been expensive, I hope it has been anything

but unprofitable, since I have not only got a great stock

of new specimens, but collected a number of new facts

in natural history, which, when embodied into papers,

will, I expect, gain me much respect from the scientific

men of England.

232 MEMOIR OF CHAP. IX.

“ In point of health, I think I am much the better of

my tropical tour, the climate having agreed with meperfectly, and no accidents having happened in the wayof Bedouins, etc. I shall not fill this letter with parti-

culars, as I expect to be with you myself on Friday

week, or at farthest on Saturday. I shall remain here

till Thursday, in order to take some notes in the libra-

ries for my papers on the natural history of Algiers,

etc., and then return by way of Boulogne and London,

at which latter place I mean to remain two or three

days, to call on my scientific friends there, several of

whom I know only by correspondence. I have money

enough by me to bring me home, and to purchase some

books here which I want, and which cannot be easily

procured on the other side of the water/'

The scientific results of this tour in Algiers were

printed in the A nnals of Natural History, vol. ii. p. 250.

In brief, he had obtained forty-five species of land and

fresh-water molluscs, chiefly in the vicinity of the city of

Algiers and the town of Bougia. Of these, seven species

were new, and described for the first time by Forbes

himself;other two species (Umax) he did not name.

The autumn of this year appears to have been spent

in his accustomed pursuits at the Isle of Man;and

when winter set in, he repaired once more to Edinburgh,

where he enrolled himself as a literary student.

The winter of 1837-38 is memorable in the annals

of the University of Edinburgh for a series of snow-ball

riots which were only finally quelled by a detachment of

the 79th Regiment of foot. The defiance of all consti

tuted authorities, more especially of the Town Councillors,

1S37-3S. EDWARD FORBES. 233

who held the anomalous position of patrons of the Uni-

versity, was no new tiling to the Edinburgh youth. It

had shown itself at intervals during the course of more

than two centuries, and, at least on one occasion, resulted

in bloodshed and death. In the year 1595, owing to an

interference of the Corporation, the boys of the High

School rose up in open rebellion, barricaded themselves

in the school, and refused to surrender until their claims

were recognised. The head-master supported his pupils,

but he was “ borne down and abused by the Council,

who never understood well what privilege belonged to

that charge." 1 One of the bailies named Macmorran,

headed a party with the design of bringing the youths

to reason by force;but after being warned off, he was

shot dead by a pistol-ball from the school—a result

which terrified the insurgents and brought the revolt

to an end.

In October 1611, the Scottish Privy-Council thought

it necessary to issue an order restraining the students of

the Edinburgh College who “ has taen and takes the

bauldness to misknow the Principal and Regents, and to

debord in all kind of uncomely behaviour and insoleneies

no wise seemly in the persons of students and scholars." 2

In 1680-81, the students threw the good town into not

a little excitement by burning the Pope in effigy, and

were shrewdly suspected of having afterwards had some

concern in burning the house of the Provost.

When, therefore, in the beginning of 1838, a simple

1 Patrick Anderson’s Hist. Scot, in • Privy - Council Record, quoted by>is. Adv. Lib., quoted by Chambers, Chambers, lib. cit. I. 435.

Domestic Ann. Scot. i. 261.


snow-ball “ bicker” merged into a bold and determined

opposition to police and patrons, it only followed the

usual course of such displays, where the customary inter-

ference of the civic authorities tends to magnify a mere

academical exercise into a serious public riot. The oc-

currence seems to deserve notice in this Memoir, not so

much from its own interest as from the fact that it kept

Edward Forbes busy for some weeks, furnishing ample

material for his pen in prose, verse, and lithographic

sketches.

Snow had fallen thickly on the evening of the 10th

January. Next morning the street in front of the Col-

lege was thronged with boys and idlers, who began a

short and comparatively trifling disturbance by throw-

ing snow-balls at the students going to and from their

classes. The snow-balling recommenced with greater

fury in the afternoon, but it was eventually quelled, not,

however, until the students had learned to expect little

protection from the police, and possibly further annoy-

ance from the populace. The following day, accordingly,

the disturbance began anew;a body of police “ sent for

the protection of the students” soon sided with the mob,

and there ensued a succession of sallies from either side,

and hand-to-hand conflicts on the street and in the

porches of the College, which lasted for several hours.

Batons, sticks, stones, and snow-balls, were plied in all

directions, many severe wounds were inflicted, more

especially on the hats and heads of the police, until, at

last, matters seemed getting so serious that the Lord

Provost and Bailies of the town thought themselves

called upon to send to the Castle for a detachment of


i

soldiers. The appearance of the red-coats and the

bayonets soon brought the riot to an end.

In the course of the second day thirty-five students

had been arrested and marched to the Police-office with

singular violence and even brutality. Many, indeed,

were seized who had not been engaged in the tumults,

and though all were remanded to a future day, the pro-

secution was finally directed against five only. Six

weeks passed away before a trial could be arranged ;the

case was at last heard in the Sheriff-Court, occupied

three days, and terminated in a full and unqualified

acquittal.

It need hardly be said that Edward Forbes was no

idle spectator of these scenes. His long person moved

about in the thickest of the throng, and, doubtless, many

of the most telling snow-balls were dealt out by his

arms. At one time during a rush by the police he nar-

rowly escaped being caught. Rushing across the quad-

rangle to the anatomical rooms, the kindly aid of the

class-servant enabled him to escape by a back-window

into the street, so that he does not appear as one of the

thirty-five prisoners, though doubtless quite as active a

warrior as any of them.

But though he had thus failed to have his name

chronicled among the heroes of his Alma Mater, he lost

no time in evincing his sympathy with the captured, and

he becomes as conspicuous in the movements which fol-

lowed as he had been in the affray. The students find-

ing the trial of their comrades postponed, and that

matters threatened to take a more serious course than at

first seemed likely, held a meeting at which a committee


was formed, with Forbes as chairman, having “ full

powers to retain counsel, and adopt any other meanswhich might appear to them advisable for having the

whole affair properly elucidated.” And, doubtless, to

the vigorous efforts made by this committee, and moreespecially to their choice of Mr. Patrick (afterwards Lord)

Robertson as counsel for the accused, their triumph was

in a great measure due. Forbes himself was especially

active. It may be easily imagined that all this tumult

afforded excellent material for the Mctga,which having-

been discontinued for a session, had now been resumed

this winter;and truly during the six weeks between the

disturbances and the trial, the material was most heartily

employed. The ancient enmity against the Town-Coun-

cil blazed forth afresh .

1 Nothing could possibly have

occurred more opportunely to show the incongruity of

that corporation enjoying the patronage of the University

than to find Provost and Bailies, without any concert or

correspondence with the professors, after only a short

interview with the students, and without any personal

attempt to control and disperse the rabble, quietly sitting

down to order a bevy of bayonets for the proper subju-

gation of the youths of whom they were the patrons and

1 In a letter written at this time to his

friend, Mr. John Aiken, Forbes says,“ This session has been a most stirring

one at College, the students being most

active every way, both in learning and

mischief. There has been some grand

sport and more ability displayed than

at any other session I remember. Of

course, you heard of the blow-up and

rebellion of the students, but you must

not believe the lying reports of the news-

papers. The revolt was not against the

professors (who are all with us), but

against the patrons, that is, the Town-

Council of Edinburgh, who have the

government of the University, much to

the dissatisfaction of both students and

professors. The thirty-seven [five] pri-

soners are to be tried in a week or two

;

the defence is conducted by a committee

elected by the University, of which I amchairman, and, as far as it lies in mypower, the matter shall not rest till the

University Charter is placed on a better

footing.”


1

protectors. Forbes’s pen held them up to weekly ridi-

cule in the front of the Maga, and depicted their

countenances in ludicrous caricature on the final page.

The journal, indeed, breathes of nothing but “ the late

war,” and yet its limits were far from affording space for

the outburst of 'literary zeal. Squibs in all sorts of

rhyme and measure were printed in broad sheets, and

hawked about the streets. Of these, Forbes chronicles

six as his own. The best of them were afterwards col-

lected by him and one or two associates, and reprinted

with a preface containing a whimsical account of the

riots in the style of the old Scottish chroniclers. They

appeared as a little pamphlet, under the seemingly peace-

ful title of the University Snow-drop

}

But in the midst of all this excitement, Forbes con-

tinued to work zealously at his natural history studies.

He writes to his friend Mr. Aiken on February 8th

(that is, between the snow-balling and the trial),—“As

for myself, I am busy enough, though about anything

except Medicine. My little book on the Manx Mollusca

is all printed;

I having corrected the last proof-sheets

about an hour ago.”

This was his first volume. It is merely a synopsis

of species, in a little duodecimo of sixty-three pages,

with three plates, and entitled, “ Mcdacologia Monensis,

by Edward Forbes, For. Sec. B. S., President of the

Royal Physical Society, ‘ o. e. m.’” It was dedicated to

Professor Jameson, “by his sincere admirer and attached

pupil.” The addition to his name of the three mystic

1 These riots are graphically described in a letter from George Wilson to his brotherDaniel. See his Life, pp. 119-123.

238 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. IX.

letters of the Brotherhood is eminently characteristic.

At this period, and indeed up to the time of his death,

when writing to any of the Brotherhood, he usually

signed his name with a triangle at the end, and often

began with an “ o. e. m.” in the corner;

nay, he even

requests a correspondent to “stick a ‘big triangle” on

the direction of his letters.

The summer of 1838 was spent on the Continent.

About the beginning of May he crossed to Antwerp,

whence he journeyed with a friend by Liege and Aix-la-

Chapelle to Frankfort. He then set out alone for

Vienna;but the rest of the journey is described by

himself in a letter to Dr. Percy. “ From Frankfort I

went to Vienna, saw the lions at Vienna;went through

Styria and Carniola to Trieste, seeing innumerable lions

on the way, the grandest of which was the great cave at

Adelsberg,—a work of nature which beats all the cathe-

drals in the world. At Trieste, I sat myself down to

naturalize;but instead of devoting my time principally

to zoology, as I originally intended, I devoted it mainly

to botany, and regularly studied all the plants of that

country,—a country the richest I ever met with in rare

and local species. Oh, my dear Percy, thy mouth would

have watered and thy fingers itched hadst thou seen

the rarities of Carniola in the plant way. Nevertheless,

trust that in a few months’ time thou shalt handle then

dry carcasses, and adorn thy own herbarium with them.

I collected about 3000 specimens, and about 300 and

odd species, almost all of which will, I expect, prove

new to Edinburgh herbariums. I have also had the

satisfaction of investigating the Polygalas and Violas


more fully than before, and confirming my British

species ;and I bring with me Jacquins Primula elatior,

a plant that never grew in Britain, and very distinct. I

owe much to my botanical companions, Tommasini and

Brasoletti, names familiar to every reader of Keichen-

bach or of Koch. I returned home by Venice, Milan,

and the Simplon/’

The British Association met this year at Newcastle,

and Forbes read before it a paper “ On the Distribution

of Terrestrial Pulmonifera in Europe,” 1 which is interest-

ing chiefly as it gives another indication of the early

tendency of his mind towards the study of the grouping

of plants and animals, and the laws by which that

grouping appears to be determined. He was intrusted

by the Association with the preparation of a report on

i the distribution of the Pulmoniferous Mollusca of the

i British Isles.

From Newcastle he went to the Isle of Man, where

for a few weeks he “ was diligently occupied naturaliz-

ing,” principally among the radiata and fishes. Heconsiderably increased the Manx Fauna, and in a letter

to his intimate friend, the late Mr. William Thompson

of Belfast, after enumerating these additions, he inti-

i mates his intention of drawing up a paper on the Manxi star-fishes. This he read before the Wernerian Society

in the following spring,1 and thereby paved the way for

r his larger and more comprehensive monograph on the

British star-fishes. But he found time also for his

/ favourite amusement of scribbling squibs and verses, for

he writes to his botanical friend, Mr. W. H. Campbell,—1 Rep. Brit. ylss. 1838, Sect. p. 112. 2 Mem. Wcr. Soc. vui.

240 MEMOIR OF CllAl'. ix.

“I have just commenced a new work, namely, ‘Hookie

Walker, a Philosophical Romance/ It will be decidedly

the finest prose composition since the days of the Son"

of Solomon.” 1

In November he returned once more to Edinburgh,

to establish himself, to use his own phrase, as “ a winter

resident in Auld Reekie,” as he found the Isle of Man“ very unscientific.” He gave this winter a course of

fifteen lectures on “ The Natural History of the Animals

in the British Seas,” before the Edinburgh Philosophical

Association. They commenced with an outline of the

system of classification and its basis, and after passing

upwards through the various grades of the British marine

fauna, terminated with a lecture on geographical distri-

bution, and a general summary of the subject.

By some mistake, the first lecture of the series had

been fixed several days earlier than that for which

Forbes was preparing; and in a letter to his father he

says, “ Guess my surprise when on arriving here I found

my name placarded over the walls, as commencing my

course on Friday the 9tli (last night). It put me terribly

out, as the lecture could not be put off;and I have

worked from the moment of my arrival to the hour of

lecture, making diagrams, drawings, and begging, bor-

rowing, and buying specimens for the introductory

lecture, as the boxes I sent to Glasgow have not yet

arrived. Though greatly flurried, I lectured last night,

1 It might be supposed that he was

here only poking a sly joke at his friend;

but in his place-book he has jotted downthe heads of part of his “ Romance.” It

was to commence with a meeting of the

fools, Jack Pudding, Pickle Herring,

Jean Potage, Hans Wurst, and Macaroni,

aud was to embrace such topics as “ The

Philosopher Fool,” “ Walker’s Bridge-

water Treatise,” “ Philosophical Biga-

my,” “ The Coming Woman,” etc.


I may say with perfect success, and to the entire satis

faction of my friends here, to an audience of between

200 and 300,though the night was extremely bad.

Among others Professor Graham [was present], a great

compliment, as the professors have hitherto made a

point of staying away from the lectures. Next Friday

I appear again.”

Christmas, with its short weeks of relaxation, found

Forbes in Fife with his friend and future colleague, Mr.

Goodsir. The interval was spent as usual, “ naturaliz-

ing,” for even the short cold days of mid-winter yielded

some material to the naturalists. St. Andrews Bay

!

was strewn with the delicate Cydippe, cast ashore in a

recent storm. There were two species, both new, which

Forbes described shortly after in the A nnals of Natural

History

}

The year 1839 thus actively ushered in, saw no

abatement of his zeal in the prosecution of natural his-

tory. Indeed, some of his former employments had to

be abandoned, so earnestly did he devote himself to his

chosen line of study. In particular, the Maga, which

towards the end of the previous winter had closed “ in

the midst of splendour,” was not resumed, much as its

:

preparation had occupied and amused him. Two similar

i journals, indeed, had been started, but Forbes had no

connexion with either. His lectures, reports for the

British Association, papers for the Wernerian Society

i and the Annals of Natural History,and the close ob-

: servation which these demanded, left him little leisure

for other matters. “ For my own part,” he writes to

1 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. In. 145.

Q

242: MEMOIR OF CHAP. IX.

Dr. Percy (February 1), “I find one science, that of

Nature, enough now, and study it with a view to the

development of the laws of species, of the laws of their

distribution, and of the connexion between the phy-

sical and mental development of creatures. In litera-

ture, I am as usual scribbling bad verses and locking

them up. You will laugh at me, I dare say, for what

you will call trifling, but I may be a poet yet, who

knows.”

Of the verses which he wrote in these student days,

there are still enough extant to form several volumes.

They are in all varieties of rhyme and rhythm, and on

all manner of subjects. About the year 1835 - 6,not a

few are “ oineromathic,” and celebrate the glories of the

mystic union of “ love, learning, wine.” Of these, the

following is among the best :—

o. E. M.

Hail, noblest science ! light divine !

To Magi only given;

Hail ! art of arts, that bears the sign,

The stamp, the seal of Heaven.

The Sun himself, although so bright,

Is dim beside this triple light.

Hurrah ! hurrah for the Rosy Band,

Hurrah for the Holly Tree !

1

Though some poor canting mortals say

That wise men must be sad,

Let them come here and see the way

How wise men can be glad.

Their wisdom is but foolery,

And ours is what it ought to be.



i The “ Rosy Band” and “ Holly”

formed part of the insignia of the Maga

Club, and then of the “ Brotherhood of

the Friends of Truth ;” the “ Magi” were,

of course, members of these fraterni-

ties.

1839 EDWARD FORBES. 243

i

1

'I

Man’s life was never meant to be

A life of care and woe;

“ Enjoy,” says true philosophy,

“ The days thou art below.”

Heaven spreads the banquet for our use,

He sins who dares Heaven’s gifts refuse.



Then whilst we live we’ll spend our hours

Mid all that ’s bright and fair;

In learning’s fields we ’ll gather flowers,

To wreathe in Beauty’s hair,

For wisdom’s hoary lochs we ’ll twine

A crown of myrtle and of vine.



A

After Forbess sojourn in Paris, he seems to have

taken especial delight in Beranger, since both among his

papers and in the pages of the Mctga there occur fre-

quent translations from that poet, as well as imitations

of some of his songs. But in his student years, and for

years afterwards, the bulk of Forbes’s poetical effusions

belonged to the amatory class, and were often of the

most sentimental kind. Sonnets to many a fair one,

odes to beauty, and passionate love-lorn songs, run

through his note-books, and occupy endless sheets, half-

sheets, and odd scraps of paper, mingled, too, with faces

ringlet-shaded or braided, grave, tender, or gay. Often,

on some page of dry natural history notes, an arch face,

with long curls, peeps out at the corner, or tall dreamy-

faced nymphs float across the leaves with arms out-

stretched, beckoning the limner to that land of sunny

eyes, in which lay the scenes of his day-dreams.

On the 10th January 1839,Forbes wrote to the

secretary of the Wernerian Society, desiring to be ad-


mitted a member. His admission, which took place

shortly afterwards, must have been peculiarly gratifying

to him, since his name was proposed by his revered

master, Jameson. The new associate soon showed that

he meant to carry out with zeal the ends of the Society.

The same session, as has already been noticed, he read

his memoir on the star-fishes of the Irish Sea, which, at

the express desire of the Society, was printed in their

Transactions .

1

As spring wore on, it became necessary to set about

completing the material for the Keport on the distribu-

tion of British pulmoniferous molluscs, which was to

be read at the ensuing Association meeting. Forbes

planned his summer tour in such a way that the ex-

treme northern and southern limits of the islands should,

if possible, be visited along with Ireland. By such a

circuit, together with what had been done by himself

and others in the intermediate area, he judged that the

report might be made “interesting, if possible, impor-

tant.” He begged vigorously from all his friends, and

received valuable aid. To Mr. Thompson he writes,

when the probability of visiting him had lessened,

“ as for Ireland, I must O'Connelize, i.e., beg assistance

from you, and anybody else you know, who can fur-

nish local lists, especially for the far west and south-

west/'

On the last day of May he sailed for the Shetlands,

touching at Anstruther by the way to take on board his

fellow-labourer, Mr. Goodsir. During the fortnight they

spent among these islands, Forbes found little to insert

1 Mem. Werner. Soc. viil.

EDWARD FORBES. 2451839.

in his report of air-breathing gasteropods, and so far the

journey was fruitless;but this was to no small extent

compensated by the success of his dredgings in the bays

and fiords. He thus sums up in his note-book the re-

sults of the fortnight :“ We have done very well, on the

whole, in our visit to Shetland, especially considering

how short our time has been. To add eleven or twelve

new animals to the British fauna, and to see as many

more exceeding rare species, confined to this locality, is

no small harvest for a naturalist to reap in a fortnight,

especially when it is considered that six days of that

fortnight were lost, in a manner, at sea. . . N.B .—Must

go back to Shetland.'” A week of similar employment

was passed in Orkney, enlivened, however, by a ball on

board one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s ships, where,

“ to the music of three fiddles, the scrapers of which

(i appeared to be somewhat elevated,” Forbes “ plunged

into the intricacies of the dance, and kept it up till two

in the morning.”

He returned to Edinburgh on the 26th June, but

started again on the 1st July, to join Mr. Smith of

1 Jordanhill in a dredging cruise among the bays of the

Firth of Clyde. He chronicles nothing of note in the1 voyage, and adds that he returned to Edinburgh on the

1 8 th. The beginning of the following month found himat Berwick and Newcastle, collecting material for his

Report from Dr. Johnston and Mr. Alder. Thence he: burned through London to Guernsey, anxious to carry

] out bis plan of gathering evidence from both extremesof the British Isles. When his notes and papers werecompleted, he went to Birmingham, where the British


Association held its reunion. The papers which lie read

were,—1st, Report on the distribution of the Pulmoni

ferous Mollusca in the British Islands, 1 in which, after

pointing out the various influences which affect the

distribution of terrestrial molluscs, he divides the British

Isles into ten zoological provinces, and indicates the

general relations of this part of the British fauna to that

of the continent of Europe. His quaint humour creeps

out in the description of the region embracing the

Scottish Highlands, of which he says, “ climate sways

the distribution in the ninth district. The hospitality

of the Highlands does not extend to snails.” 2 cl, Notice

of Zoological researches in Orkney and Shetland during

June 1839. 23 d, On the Ciliograda of the British seas

by Forbes and Gooclsir. At this meeting three com-

mittees were formed, in each of which Forbes took part.

One had for its object the preparation of skeleton maps

for recording the distribution of plants and animals.

But he took still more interest in the Dredging Com-

mittee, which, indeed, owed its existence largely to his

own exertions. A sum of sixty pounds was set apart

“ for researches with the dredge, with a view to the

investigation of the marine zoology of Great Britain,

the illustration of the geographical distribution of marine

animals, and the more accurate determination of the

fossils of the pleistocene period.” His interest in the

operations of this committee found vent in some verses

which, though written for the next Association meeting,

may be appropriately quoted here. The first three

verses ran as follows :—

Rep. lint. Ass. 1839, p. 127.8 Ibid. p. 79.

1839 .

EDWARD FORBES. 247

THE DREDGING SONG.

BY A MEMBER OF THE DREDGING COMMITTEE OF SECT. D.

Hurrah for the dredge, with its iron edge,

And its mystical triangle,

And its hided net with meshes set

Odd fishes to entangle !

The ship may move through the wave above,

Mid scenes exciting wonder,

But braver sights the dredge delights

As it roveth the waters under.

Chorus—Then a-dredging we will go, wise boys 1

Then a-dredging we will go.

Down in the deep, where the mermen sleep,

Our gallant dredge is sinking;

Each finny shape in a precious scrape

Will find itself in a twinkling !

They may twirl and twist, and writhe as they wist,

And break themselves into sections;

But up they all, at the dredge’s call,

Must come to fill collections.

Chorus—Then a-dredging, etc.

The creatures strange the sea that range,

Though mighty in their stations,

To the dredge must yield the briny field

Of their loves and depredations.

The crab so bold, like a knight of old

In scaly armour plated,

And the slimy snail, with a shell on his tail,

And the star-fish—radiated.

Chorus—Then a-dredging, etc.

Tliis meeting is memorable for the institution of the

“ Red Lions,” of which Forbes was the founder, and, for

many years, the leading spirit. He and other young

naturalists, disliking the irksomeness and expense of the

ordinary, adjourned to a small tavern adorned with the

sign of the Red Lion. There they dined daily at small

expense, on beef cooked in various fashions, moistened

with sundry potations of beer, and enlivened by joke

and song— in contradistinction to the endless dishes and

wines, and formality of the “ big wigs.” “ Before the

248 MEM01K OF CHAP. IX.

conclusion of the meeting,” says Dr. Bennett, “these

dinners became so famous that the tenement could

scarcely hold the guests, and it was resolved to continue

them wherever afterwards the Association should meet.”

The sign of the tavern furnished a name for the guests.

They styled themselves “Red Lions,” and, in proof of

their leonine relationship, made it a point of always

signifying their approval or dissent by growls and roars

more or less audible, and, where greater energy was

needed, by a vigorous flourishing of their coat-tails. In

these manifestations it is needless to say that the voice

of Edward Forbes rang out above the rest, and his

rampant coat-tail served as a model to the younger

lions. He was wont, too, to delight the company by

chanting in his own peculiar intonation songs composed

for the occasion, the subjects being usually taken from

some branch of science (as in the song quoted on the

preceding page), and treated with that humour and

grotesqueness in which he so much delighted. Of these

and the “ Red Lions” who listened to them, more will

be said in subsequent chapters, for the meetings were

continued to the time of Forbes’s death, and are still

kept up. Indeed, so pleasant were they found to be,

that those members who lived in London, formed them-

selves into a Red Lion Association, and met statedly,

their crest being a brilliant red lion with a long pipe

in one paw, and a glass of beer in the other, and the

“ feeding hour of the carnivora, six o’clock precisely.

The reader may perchance smile, and deem these but

some of the extravagancies of youth. And yet they

were zealously joined in by men who have since stood


forth as leaders in science, respected all over the world.

Let no one think lightly of them who has never mingled

among the students of nature, and who knows, there-

fore, nothing of the hearty fellow-feeling which, in spite

of petty jealousies, unites these men into one great

brotherhood, and of the sometimes even boyish exulta-

tion with which they quit museum, laboratory, lecture -

room, hill, valley, or shore, and repair from all corners

of the land to compare notes in science, and to stimulate

and strengthen each other by the exchange of a frank

and generous sympathy. Men who spend their years

face to face with nature, would be formed of strange

mould if their spirits caught no measure, how small

soever, of nature’s freshness and exuberance. There

lies an interconnexion, dimmed sometimes, but clear

enough in the main, between free open creation and

free open hearts;and this, when allowed to manifest

itself untrammelled, is apt, sometimes, to take a form

which, to the world at large, seems no way consonant

with the gravity deemed requisite hi the votaries of

science. Unfortunately, the popular notion has had a

potent influence in scientific circles, and it was largely

in opposition to this kind of cant that Forbes, who hated

it with his whole soul, originated the “ Red Lions.”

And, in after years, when he had arrived at the zenith

of his reputation, and British geology had conferred

upon him the highest honours it had to bestow, his

antipathy to men of buckram remained strong as ever.

He could see no reason why a President of the Geological

Society should cease to be a “ Red Lion,” and so he

chanted his songs and cracked his jokes as merrily


as lie had done in the little Birmingham tavern whenhe was only beginning to be known.

After the meeting at Birmingham, Forbes returned

to the Isle of Man, where he remained two months,

naturalizing, as was his wont. He devoted his time

especially to the study of the Echinodermata, and

began to contemplate an extension of his paper on those

of the Irish Sea,1

so as to form a monograph of the

British species. The material for such a work had been

slowly accumulating, partly from the donations of friends,

but chiefly from his own researches, and in the Septem-

ber of this year (1839) he deemed his stores sufficiently

ample to justify him in proposing to collect them into a

volume. Accordingly, he wrote to Mr. Van Voorst

“ Douglas, Isle of Man, *Sept. 16, 1839.

“ Sir,—Having for some time back, under the most

favourable circumstances, been collecting materials for

the natural history of the molluscous and radiate

animals of Great Britain, most of which are now in a

state nearly ready for publication, 1 should like to know

if such would be available in your plan of publishing a

series of histories.

“ I am drawing up at present a history of British

star-fishes, with a view to publication during the early

part of next year. If it would suit your series, it is at

your service. There are about thirty or thirty-five

species, many of which have only been observed by my-

self. Drawings of all of these I should furnish, and

accompany them with a series of specimens for the use

of the engraver.1 Mem. Werner. Soc. vm.

iS39. EDWARD FORBES. ^ 0 L

“ In regard to the extent of my materials, graphic

and descriptive, on this subject, on the Medusae, and on

the radiate animals generally, I believe I may take the

liberty of referring you to Professor Jtymer Jones. An

answer would oblige.— 1 am, Sir, your obedient Servant,

“ Edward Forbes/5

“To .T. Van Voorst, Esq.”

This offer was at once accepted by the enterprising

publisher; the work occupied Forbes during the fol-

lowing winter, and the greater part of the next year,

appearing in numbers until the summer of 1841, when

the whole was completed, forming his well-known Bis

tory of British Star-fishes.

To come more prominently before the public than

he had hitherto done, formed part of a plan by which

Forbes judged that his devotion to science might be

rewarded with a professional appointment. It was now

more than three years since he had given himself up to

science, in the hope, as lie wrote at the time, that it

would “ bring him in, before many years rolled over,

some remuneration for his exertions.” The success of

his public lectures, and the growing confidence he felt

in his powers as an expositor of nature, encouraged him

to aim at any eligible chair of natural history that

might fall vacant. In the meantime, it seemed

needful to take up some public position which, while

extending his name as a teacher, would at the same

time afford him to some extent the remuneration he

desired. It was with this aim he had become a public

lecturer, and had “ worked pretty hard,” as he wrote to

252 MEMOIll OF CI1AJ’. IX.

Dr. Percy, “endeavouring to knock up a reputation, so

as to get a chair, if possible, some day.” An explanation

of these views is contained in the following “plan,”

written on a loose half-sheet of paper, and found amonghis manuscripts :

—

“ Plan.

“ Intention .—To establish hi Edinburgh as a lecturer

on natural liistory and a literary man, with a view to a

chair in one of the Universities, or some corresponding

situation of permanent profit.

“ How to be obtained .—By increasing my collec-

tions up to the lecturing point, so as to make them a

recommendation for the class;

to gather materials for

commencement as soon as possible, and deposit them in

rooms in Edinburgh hired for the purpose (in addition

to lecture-room).

“ Immediate Prospect—Little or no remuneration

from lecturing at first, but certainty of employment as a

lecturer generally in a year or two, if successful. Also

of literary employment (which is always profitable)

before long.

“ Outlay required.—On collection (illustrative speci-

mens);

books (necessary text-books);rooms (lecture

and collection);occasional printing and literary specu-

lations.

“Annual Allowance.”—[From his father.]

There was one professorship in particular at which

he looked very wistfully. A fund had been left for the

endowment of a “ Chair of Chemistry, or some allied

science,” in the University of St. Andrews, and the


Professors were willing, and even anxious, that as there

already existed a chemical professorship, the money

should be applied to the endowment of a Chair of

Natural History. Sir David Brewster gave Forbes

every encouragement, and indeed, at one time, it

appeared likely that the appointment would be made in

his favour. But in the end nothing came of it.

It was to inquire into the prospects of this Chair,

that on his arrival in Edinburgh, about the middle of

October, Forbes hurried to St. Andrews. He found only

new difficulties in the way, but to augment his chances of

success in the event of the Chan being erected, he agreed

to give a course of lectures in the town. On returning to

Edinburgh, he thus details his prospects to his father :

—

“ Edinburgh,October 29.— I have engaged to deliver

a short course at St. Andrews in November and Decem-

ber, eight or ten lectures, at two guineas each, which will

pay my booksellers bill. I shall then return here until

the end of January, when I go to Liverpool and deliver

eight lectures there. I am very glad to have any excuse

for not lecturing here this winter, as there is sure to be

a blow-up between the professors and out-lecturers, in

which I should be sorry to be implicated. The profes-

sors and my friends here generally are very well pleased

at my refusing to join the “ Queens College,” as it is

called. At the same time, I am on the best terms with

the lecturers. It is best to adhere to the stronger party

when they are in the right. I am in treaty at present

with a London publisher about the publication of a workon the British star-fishes. Such a book would do memuch service. My memoir on that subject, in the Wer-

254 MEMOIR OF CHAP. IX

nerian Transactions, which has just come out, has given

great satisfaction.”

It would seem from the conclusion of this extract

that he had kept his own counsel regarding the forth-

coming volume, and though living with his father for

more than a month after writing to Mr. Van Voorst, had

not divulged it until he got back again to Edinburgh,

and matters appeared likely to come to a favourable

issue.

His lectures in Fife commenced at the beginning of

December, and another invitation having been sent to

him by the Cupar Philosophical Association, he lectured

twice a week there, and likewise twice a week at St.

Andrews. The subject was a wider one than he had

.chosen for the preceding winter, inasmuch as it embraced

a summary of the whole animal kingdom, and he found

it necessary to expand the course into twelve lectures.

From the report of a contemporary local newspaper, we

learn that the series at Cupar was “ extremely well at-

tended, the audience commencing at an average of eighty,

and terminating at more than double that number.” The

light in which Forbes regarded these lectures is well

shown in a letter written at the time (December 16)to

his friend Mr. Patterson of Belfast :—

“ My chief motive

at present,” he says,“

is the practice of public speaking,

and the combining my knowledge of particular points in

zoology with a general knowledge of the whole animal

kingdom. This is best done by lecturing, and as I have

become a philosopher by profession, I think it right and

fair to make philosophy contribute towards its own ex-

penses.”

1839. EDWAKD FORBES. 255

Whilst thus diffusing a taste for natural history pur-

suits, lie did not cease to prosecute vigorously his own

original researches. At St. Andrews he especially de-

voted himself to a careful study of some of the Beroidae,

establishing some new points in their nervous structure,

which had been mistaken by Dr. Grant.

On the 9th December 1839, he writes :—

“ Dear

Patterson,—The last fortnight I have been up to the

ears in Cydippes with most excellent results, chiefly

microscopic. In these examinations I have had the

benefit of the assistance in microscopes, etc., of Major

Playfair and Sir David Brewster—old eyes at looking

through glasses. ... Do write to me about our favourite

subjects, and believe me ever sincerely yours,

“ Edward Forbes A.”

!

Towards the end of this year was founded a Uni-

versity Club, intended to supply a bond of union amongthe students of the different faculties, and between

present and former students. Under its auspices an

Academic Annual was published (the first and last of

the series), containing, among others, essays by SamuelBrown, George Wilson, and Edward Forbes. It was here

that Forbes first sketched out that grouping of the

marine zones which in after years he so minutely de-

veloped. The title of his paper is, “ On the Association

of Mollusca on the British coast, considered with refer-

ence to Pleistocene Geology.” After some general re-

marks on the necessity of connecting the study of fossils

with that of living forms, he proceeds to divide thesloping sea-bed into four zones :

—


l.s‘£, .The littoral zone between high and low water.

2d, The region of laminarice, or tangle, from low water

to from 7 to 10 fathoms. 3 d, The region of corallines,

“ the chosen scene for the operation of the dredge—an

instrument as valuable to a naturalist as a thermometer

to a natural philosopher”—15 to 30 fathoms, ttli, Region

of corals, 60 fathoms.

After pointing out the effects of subsidence or

elevation in mingling the fauna of the different zones,

he states that the pleistocene beds, even when without

extinct forms, yet differ in the association of mollusca

from the shell-beds of the neighbouring seas, and that

even the pleistocene, which is a subdivision of the

pliocene, needs to be partitioned into a newer and older

series.

The Fife lectures ended in the middle of January

1840, and the course which he had engaged to give in

Liverpool began on the 13th of next month. The in-

terval was spent at Edinburgh, writing up his notes and

completing his drawings of the star-fishes, which he had

promised to have ready for the publisher on the 1st

March. This arrangement, however, owing to an un-

expected change in the date of the Liverpool lectures, he

found himself unable to fulfil. As it was, he had to

deny himself much pleasant social intercourse at Liver-

pool, and took lodgings instead of accepting the hospi-

tality of a friend, that his labour might be less impeded.

“ Every hour, exclusive of lecture,” so he writes to his

sister (March 9),“ has been taken up writing." Yet the

writing was not wholly scientific. Amid ophiurse, opliio-

comas, Luidias, echini, and cidares, he found quiet


moments when his fancy glided back into its old and

long-loved channel, and bore its wonted burden of verse

and song. Among his papers there is “ A Round Robin

from the Ladies,” printed in the Liverpool Albion, and

signed BBS;

1 and the “ Editor’s Reply to the Ladies

of Liverpool,” evidently also from his pern To the same

paper he sent one of his best lyrics—one indeed which

might justify his aspiration “ to be a poet yet.” The

following is from Iris own copy, cut out of the newspaper,

and contains only one emendation in his handwriting

:

—A NIGHT SCENE.

A night-sky over head :

One solitary star

Shining amid

A little track of blue—for dark clouds hid

Its sister sunlets;on its azure bed

It seemed a sun, for there

No jealous planet shone with which it to compare.

The dark clouds rolled away,

And all heaven’s shining train

Of suns and stars,

With the great moon, beamed forth their gorgeous light.

Where then was that fair star that shone so bright ?

Where was it ? none could say,

Yet there it doubtless was although it seemed away.

So lustrous shall we find

On earth each soul 2

When seen alone

;

And though when brighter spirits round it press,

We lose its form and doubt its loveliness,

Still should we bear in mindThat it is not less bright although it be outshined.

Liverpool, March 1840.

The lectures appear to have been successful, since they

i In his early articles, songs and

sketches, Forbes varied his initials in a

most characteristic way. Sometimes he

wrote B B B B (four b’s= Forbes);or only

B B;

or, as above, BBS; or he altered

the pun by substituting four actual bees

with quizzical faces (sometimes with a

pipe in their mouths) and bodies and legs

thrown into the most awkward positions.2 “ Each living soul,” marginal note.

E


not only pleased Forbes but also the directors, who ex-

pressed a wish that he should lecture again next session.

This lie willingly agreed to do, as the remuneration

(five guineas a lecture) was much larger than he had

received in Scotland, and additional experience in public

speaking he regarded as of great importance. He men-

tions a correspondence with some of the Manchester

Institutions, relative to a course of lectures in May, but

the pressure of other engagements seems to have pre-

vented it ever taking place.

No sooner had he concluded his engagement at

Liverpool than he hurried off to London, to arrange

about the publication of his “ British Star-fishes.” The

fortnight in town was a very pleasant one. He found

Mr. Van Voorst ready to second his exertions, and de-

termined to spare no expense in bringing out the volume

in the best style of printing and engraving. Forbes took

away with him some wood-blocks to draw with his own

pencil the outlines of the ophiurae, etc. Of this visit he

thus writes to Thompson (March 21), “I have spent a

very pleasant time in London, but have not done much.

This is not the place for working. Paris is a much

better locality for a naturalist.” He received great kind-

ness from the leading scientific men of the metropolis,

and he especially records the names of Bobert Brown,

Owen, Lyell, Yarrel, Rymer Jones, Ward, Bentham,

Harvey, and others. “ On Thursday,” he says, “ I had a

great treat in dining at Ward’s, meeting Robert Brown,

old Menzies, Bentham, and Harvey. We had a most

pleasant dinner-party. I have seen a good deal of the

geologists, and found them by no means bad fellows.”


1

:

He left London for Edinburgh on the 25th March,

with the intention of returning early in May to see the

woodcuts of his work before they were printed off. His

speedy migration northwards afforded some merriment

to his friends at Belfast, and he defends himself in a

letter to Mr. Thompson :—“ I am amused greatly at

your triumph over my return to Edinburgh. True, I

could not work in London : I preferred pretty women

to star-fishes, and the theatre to study. Besides, want

of books, actual want of books ! After all, give me my

lodgings in my attic in Lothian Street, in spite of my

uproarious visitors. I would work well in London, how-

ever, were I fixed there in lodgings.”

'When he returned to the “ attic,” it was with the

firm determination to devote every available moment

towards hurrying on his work for Mr. Aban Voorst. He

was induced to this, not only by the desire of having the

volume published at once : the British Association was

to meet this year in Glasgow, all the Scottish naturalists

would be there, and he felt that he could certainly take

no mean place among them. It became needful, there-

fore, to get ready fresh papers. He had materials for

several, but they were not so complete as an additional

month or two of dredging and exploration might make

them. Hence if he allowed the summer to slip away

whilst he remained in Edinburgh, August would come

upon him unprepared. Unfortunately, however, a cala-

mity befell him which no amount of prudence could have

averted. His landlady had resolved to leave Edinburgh,

and so poor Forbes received notice to quit his attic,

where he had been gathering together plants, sea-urchins,


shells, minerals, boxes, bottles, and scraps of paper,—in

short, as he called it himself, “ the accumulated rubbish

of four years.” When the fatal truth became only too

evident, he began the exodus as methodically as, in the

midst ol such a chaos, seemed possible. To his sister

he writes, “ I intend to have a sale of old clothes

next week, and then distribute my goods among myfriends, or else hire a room wherein to put them.

Seriously, it is very annoying at present, as it delays

my book/'

We cannnot wonder that, under these circumstances,

the young naturalist’s brain should at times have become

somewhat confused. “ All my movements,” he says to

Mr. Thompson (May 13),“are floating like dreams in my

brain,—Channel Islands, Ireland, Hebrides, Isle of Man,

all dancing quadrilles with each other, pirouetting in

turn, advancing and retreating, and then to then places.

I wish I were omnipresent,” The weather, too, annoyed

him, for in the same letter he adds, “ I don’t feel well in

an east wind;

it blows my brains to the wrong side of

my head, and confuses me.” And so, by way of solace,

he threatens to “ do the animal kingdom in verse, stick-

ing at nothing that is physiologically true.” He began

this design, indeed, by writing a few humorous verses

on the habits and structure of the Holothuridae. Happily,

however, the wind and his landlady’s intention seem

to have changed together. He was allowed to remain

peaceably in his old abode, and prosecuted his drawings

and descriptions until summoned to London by an

urgent letter from Mr. Thompson. He remained only

a week in town, working almost without intermission at


the preparation of the first part of the“ Star-fishes,

and then hurried with his friend to Liverpool.

The early part of this summer seems to have been

spent quietly at the Isle of Man. On the 6 th of July

he left Douglas, and passed some weeks in Ireland. At

Belfast he found his old friends and fellow-naturalists,

William Thompson and Robert Patterson, and under

their guidance strolled round the neighbourhood of the

town. From Belfast he proceeded with Thompson and

Hyndman, by Enniskillen and Ballyshannon, to Bun-

doran, where with the addition of Robert Ball, they

tried to dredge, but found the sea too stormy, and con-

tented themselves with an examination of the rocks of

the shore. At Westport, Lough Killery, Clifden, and

Roundstone Bay they dredged, but the unfavourable

state of the weather still continued. At the last-named

locality, Thompson parted from the company, and tra

i veiled by land to Galway, while the rest made the trip

by sea, meeting with an accident at the Arran Isles, by

which the jib-boom was snapped. They arrived in Galway

late at night, and found their friend in bed fast asleep.

After some further dredging on the west coast of Clare,

Forbes re-crossed the country, and returned to the Isle of

Man, where he remained till the 9th of September, busy

with his volume, and with the preparation of one or two

papers for the Association. Some of these required

additional dredging, but his usual success had somehow

deserted him this summer. “ I do think/' he writes to

Mr. Patterson, “ the Medusae have heard of our com-

mittee and cut, or that some mischievous anti-zoologist

has written them an anonymous letter warning them of

262 MEMOIR OF CHAP. IX

their danger, for deuce a one is to be seen in the sea

now where there were once so many ! I have been

doing exactly as yourself to find them. My only cap-

tures have been the common Medusa aurita, the Cyanea

capillata,

C. Lamarkii, and the Cydippe pileus, and

even all these arc exceedingly scarce this year. There is

evidently a conspiracy.”

It is interesting to notice the delight with which he

looked forward to the ensuing meeting of the British

Association, and the desire he expressed in many of his

letters that he might behold a strong muster of his

naturalist comrades. Any one who showed symptoms

of hanging back received an earnest expostulation, warn-

ing, entreaty, or even friendly threat. William Thomp-

son, who found himself unable to attend, came in for

an especial measure of bantering;another old student-

friend, who had returned from abroad, was warmly

solicited to“ come to Glasgow to meet them all.”

Wholly free from the petty jealousy of lesser minds,

Forbes delighted to see round him his comrades and

rivals in the race. He encouraged, aided, and advised

them, or frankly told them their faults, ever binding

them closer to him by the transparent openness and

generous friendship of all his doings.

Although one or two of the band were absent, Forbes

had no reason to be disappointed with the aspect of the

phalanx of young men of science. He saw around him

not a few who had entered the field with himself, and

who, fighting their way upward with him, have since

taken a high place. The array of leaders in science was

likewise a goodly one. In his own section (of which

IS40. EDWARD FORBES. 263

lie and his friend Mr. Patterson were chosen secretaries),

Forbes records with especial pleasure the presence ot

Agassiz. “ We are great friends,” he wrote to Mr.

Thompson from Lothian Street, after the conclusion of

the meeting, “ and were together all the Association

week.” “ I expect him here on the 21st October ;he is

to work over my species with me, so as to avoid useless

synonyms.”

Forbes’s scientific standing was greatly heightened,

both by his papers, and by the impression of the wide

range of his acquirements produced by his conversation,

and the manner in which he discharged the duties of

secretary. The communications which he read were,

1st, A paper in the Geological Section, “ On a Pleisto-

cene tract in the Isle of Man, and the relation of its

Fauna to that of the neighbouring sea.” This was his

first appearance before the geologists of the Association.

In introducing himself and his subject to them, he said

“ that he did not appear as a geologist, but as a zoolo-

gist desirous of contributing to the progress of geology."

2 cl, On Peloncria, a new genus of ascidian mollusca, a

joint paper by John Goodsir and Edward Forbes. They

had found two of their species near Rothesay, and one

in the Firth of Forth. 3 cl, Further researches on the

British Ciliograda, also a joint paper by the same authors,

in continuation of that which they had read at the pre-

vious meeting.

The “ Red Lions” growled, and roared, and flourished

their tails again this year as lustily as before. Pro-

fessor Ramsay, who now entered the fraternity, has

furnished the following recollections of the meeting :

—


“ I dined,” lie says, “ with the ‘ Eed Lions’ at the Thistle

in Glassford Street, and sat, I think, between Forbes

and Lankester. Forbes and an Irish gentleman were

the very life of the party. They both made speeches

replete with humour, the latter returning thanks for

the health of the army, and Forbes proposing the

health of that wonderful curiosity—a creature com-

pounded of a cross between the Eed Lion of England

and the Scottish Thistle. He also chanted his famous

song of the oyster—a style of composition which, at

that time, to me had all the charm of novelty. It was

with no small pleasure that 1 then discovered that the

most promising young scientific men of the day were as

remarkable for their mirth and humour as for their

scientific acquirements.”

When the meeting of the Association terminated

(23d September) a large number of the members visited

Edinburgh, to which Forbes also repaired. Among the

visitors he especially welcomed Agassiz, who, as he wrote

to Mr. Thompson, visited the attic of 21, Lothian Street,

and “ worked over the synonyms, freely telling all he

knew, and confessing all he did not know. He was in

ecstasies with the living urchins, star-fishes, and ophiune

I showed him, and confessed he had never seen them

alive.” “ He also gave in to my classification of the

Echinodermata, admitting the Ophiuridse as a group

equivalent to the star-fishes, and granting that the

Sipunculidse are radiata.”

The gradual departure of his Association friends,

and the consequent cessation of the round of break-

fasts, dinners, and suppers, left Forbes at leisure to


bethink him of how the winter was to be spent. The

St. Andrew’s Chair still kept dancing like a will-o’-the-

wisp before him, and about the middle of October, it

seemed on the eve of decision. But ere a month had

gone by, it slipped away from him, and nothing but an

Act of Parliament could bring it back, by sanctioning the

application of the fund to a Chair of Natural History.

Nevertheless, he was told that it had been resolved to

apply for such an act, so that he had still a chance of

settling in St. Andrews. But he had ceased to be very

sanguine in the matter, and he remarked that he should

“probably have cut natural history before it was settled.”

The truth is, he began to weary of the uncertainty and

dependence of his lot. His lectures hardly paid their

own expenses. The literary employment to which he

had looked forward as likely to afford some help he had

found no time to undertake, and no other remunerative

sphere of labour seemed open to him. His buoyant

spirit and enthusiastic devotion to science had hitherto

closed his eyes to the difficulties a-head, but now, as

these came nearer, he found himself reluctantly com -

pelled to look them full in the face. The result of his

councils was to make one more vigorous effort in Edin-

burgh. “ I mean,” so he writes to Mr. Thompson, “ to

give science another chance for a year, and if there are

no better prospects at the end of it 1 must bid it adieu.”

That he was in earnest when this decision was madesoon became evident by the announcement of twocourses of lectures by him this winter. One of these

was a strictly scientific series upon systematic andstructural zoology, and the philosophy of natural his-

MEMOIR OF CHAP. IX.2 fid

tory. The second course was of a more popular caste.

It formed one part of a series of lectures on the “ Philo-

sophy of the Sciences,” of which the other half wasundertaken by the late Dr. Samuel Brown 1—a college

friend with whom Forbes had much in common. Thesubject of Forbes’s popular lectures he called “ Zoology

and Psycho-zoology,” terms which sufficiently indicate

the general aim and tendency of his thoughts. These

lectures were given weekly on the Saturday evenings,

and began auspiciously with an audience of 200;but

this number was due, as the lecturers soon found, rather

to the fact that the introductory discourses were free, than

to any strong interest in philosophy on the part of the

public. “ If this experiment fail,” wrote Forbes to Mr.

Patterson, “ I don’t know what to say about feeding

the people. The mass bestow more kicks than half-

pence on science.” Plis forebodings were only too truly

realized;on the first paying night the room showed a

disheartening array of empty benches, and the lectures

in the end became a failure.

The other more strictly scientific lectures were in-

tended chiefly for students, and were given three times

a week. This series, too, met with little encouragement,

but Forbes went on lecturing from a stern sense of duty,

because, to quote his own words, “ to desert my post

here, even with my two or three students, would be

ruination to my character for steadiness.”

It seemed as though success in the more practical

affairs of life were never to be gained. Here, in the

1 Four years after this he refers to lectures;

it may amuse you by the iin-

these lectures in a letter to Mr. Horner. puclence of two students putting forth

“I send you the prospectus of these such a document.”


third vocation he had chosen, he found little but dis-

appointment, and this was now all the more discourag-

ing, not merely from its repetition at a maturer age, but

because it met him in the path where he felt that he

deserved to succeed, and which, indeed, he saw was the

path for which he was specially qualified. The prospect

was far from cheering. Everywhere around him he saw

his old comrades settled in more or less remunerative

spheres of labour;they had a definite aim and employ-

ment;some were even rising to eminence in scientific

reputation, and others, far his inferiors in mental power,

seemed to find lucrative appointments almost without

an effort. But as for himself, he had been drifting

about for five years since abandoning medicine, and now

a settled home and permanent vocation appeared about

as far distant as ever. Yet he had worked hard;he

had botanized and zoologized at intervals from the Shet-

land s to the Channel Isles;he had dredged a consider-

able extent of the Scottish coast, as well as the Irish Sea;

he had added not a few animals to the British fauna;he

had dissected and studied many of the invertebrata,

especially the echinoderms and some of the medusae;he

had published several carefully prepared papers and

memoirs, and was at that time engaged upon his book

on the “ Star-fishes,” and as the result of the whole, lie

had come to be regarded by the leading men of science

as one of the most promising naturalists in the country.

And yet, with this amount of work done and reputation

gained, and with the earnest desire to labour still morevigorously, every avenue towards a livelihood seemedclosed against him.


That a man of Forbes’s sensitive nature felt all this

keenly may easily be believed. But lie preserved, never-

theless, the innate buoyancy of his spirit, and serious

though matters looked, he could inweave with them a

thread of light-hearted humour. Instead of sitting downin despair at the signal failure of his double course of

lectures, he boldly resolved to adventure another series

for the summer months. This decision he thus com-

municates to Mr. Thompson (25th January 1841) : “Youwill be surprised when I tell you that I can’t go to Lon-

don, as I mean to lecture in summer ! May, June, and

July I must be here. I do so as an act of duty, and to

give the lecturing a fair trial;

if it does not look well in

summer, Til adapt my brains to something else—perhaps

writing plays, which is a favourite ambition of mine. . .

My summer plan is to lecture thrice a week, and dredge

the intermediate days, training my class to dredging and

practical observation, and rearing a band of practical

naturalists, who may take my place should I cut the

science or my stick.”

These summer lectures were undertaken partly on

account of a license which, through the intercession of a

friend, he had obtained from the Army Board, qualify-

ing his lectures for the military examinations. He hoped

that this recognition would attract some additional stu-

dents;

at least he felt bound to make use of it, and so

he lectured on through the winter, with somewhat better

prospects for the summer session. But he was destined

to spend the summer in a very different fashion, and in

a far-distant climate.

In the beginning of February, he heard from Belfast


that an officer of the surveying squadron in the Mediter-

ranean had come to England, and was anxious, before

returning to the East, to make the acquaintance of a

naturalist, who would be content to share a sailors fare

for a year or two in the Levant. As soon as the desire

was expressed to them, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Thompson

at once suggested Edward Forbes, and they wrote to

him, asking whether, if such an offer were made to him, he

would be willing to accept it. The letter which Forbes

wrote in reply is remarkable for its caution and forethought.

He proposes seven questions, as to his fitness, the social

qualities and official position of the officer, the time when

his own services would be needed, and the means of

transporting himself and his apparatus to the station.

At the same time, he was ready, as he said, to jump at

the proposal, though, of course, he could make no move-

ment until his father’s consent should be obtained. Whenhe heard, in answer, that the officer in command was no

other than Captain Graves, with whose name he had

long been familiar, his determination to go was taken.

“ It would be the acme of naturalizing happiness,” he

wrote, and if matters could be arranged with the good

people at the Isle of Man, he was ready to start at once.

He said he never could anticipate his father’s decisions,

and he felt considerably puzzled to conjecture how his

proposal would be received, “ to enter on so complete an

abandonment of his immediate occupations, as going to

naturalize in the Mediterranean for a couple of years at

a month’s notice.”

A week had to elapse before an answer could comeback from the island, and part of the time was spent in


anticipation ol the voyage, reading and getting his notes

and apparatus ready. He had still part of his Star-fishes

to complete for Mr. Van Voorst, and the frequent use of the

microscope produced an inflammation of the eyes, which

delayed his work, and occasioned some little annoyance.

In such leisure moments, he had often thought of putting-

together his scattered jottings and reminiscences of jour

neys by land and sea, natural history facts, sketches of

manners, customs, and pictures of the roving, adventurous

life of an enthusiastic naturalist. This winter, the pos-

sibility of such a volume had come so strongly before

him, that while temporarily laid aside from the use of

the microscope, he prepared to write it, and sent the first

page or two to his friend Mr. Van Voorst. It was to be

entitled “ Rambles of a Naturalist/’ and to contain end-

less vignettes from the ample stores of Ins journals and

sketch-books. Some of these sketches actually passed

into the engravers hands;two pages were set up by the

printer, and a prospectus of the aim of the work was

printed at the end of the “ Star-fishes.” But the volume

was never written. The stir and excitement of the

month of March 1841 interrupted his negotiations, and

the new scenes and duties of his after-life never allowed

him leisure to complete them.

The evening of the 19th February brought the longed-

for letter from the Isle of Man. To his delight, and just

a little to his surprise, he received not merely a consent

but an approval from his father, but with some qualifica-

tions, which Edward interpreted to mean that he might

expect no addition to his student’s income in the event of

the voyage being undertaken. This, however, would have

1841 . EDWARD FORBES. 271

been esteemed a small matter, and would, perhaps, never

liave cost him even a moment’s thought, had the journey

been a knapsack-tramp like his rambles in Scandinavia,

Switzerland, and Algiers. But the prospect of spending,

possibly, a couple of years among navy-men, induced

him to make inquiries as to how far his means would be

sufficient. His student income, derived entirely from

his father’s purse, did not reach £150 a year. But in

addition, he expected a small remittance from London

for the “ Star-fishes,” according to agreement, and with

this income he proposed to venture, under the belief that

William Thompson would join him. The latter, how-

ever, hung back for some time, and his hesitation gave

rise to several long and energetic letters from Forbes,

showing how the journey would add ten years to their

lives, afford them ample material on which to establish

a reputation as naturalists, and, above all, greatly ad-

vance the cause of their favourite studies. In the end,

the two friends agreed to go together, both as guests of

Captain Graves, except that Forbes was “ rated on the

books” as Naturalist to H. M. S. “ Beacon,” an honorary

title, on which he set a high value, from its bearings on

his future prospects.

His winter lectures were just concluded, the “ Star-

fishes,” though not published, was all in the hands of the

printer, and by the second week of March nothing re-

mained to detain him save a short visit to the Isle of

Man, and another to his sister in Staffordshire. Hearranged to start from Edinburgh on the 13th of the

month, and was actually on his way to the coach for

Glasgow, when he received a letter from Hr. Fleming


advising him to try for the vacant Chair of Natural

History at Aberdeen. Shortly before, when this vacancy

became known, it was generally stated that Dr. Fleming

himself had made application for the appointment. In

doubt as to the truth of this rumour, Forbes had written

to him, stating that if he did not try he himself would

do so. Such generous candour ever met with a ready

response from the veteran naturalist. He replied that

he had made application for the chair, and had, indeed,

been promised it, but that if any probability of a contest

should arise he would withdraw, and mite immediately

to his young friend, and hence Fleming’s letter advising

Forbes to put in his claim. Before the receipt of this

letter the latter had written to Mr. Thompson :“ I should

much like to have it [the chair], as it would place mymind at ease and render me independent of home, but I

fear it is in vain to hope for it. I must just look forward

to the results of the Greek expedition, and should any-

thing turn up when I am away, I must leave a request

with my friends to put in a claim for me.” Though late

in the field, he was not altogether without hope. Jamieson

promised to support him, Fleming would probably do the

same, and his friend Professor Blackie mote to enlist

the co-operation of the member for Aberdeen. Of the

candidates, he scarcely feared Macgillivray. Phillips was

his formidable opponent, backed, as he believed, by the

whole strength of the Geological Society.

Under these circumstances, the route by the west coast

had to be abandoned. Leaving Mr. Goodsir to collect

testimonials from the Scottish naturalists, Forbes started

by packet for London, to push matters at head -quarters,


and arrange with Captain Graves about the journey to

Malta, for whatsoever might be the result of his canvass

for the Aberdeen Chair, he had determined upon going

to the East, and the success of his application would only

prevent his wintering abroad, and bring him home to

lecture in November. But in the end, the decision of

Lord Normanby (for the Chair is a regius one) went

against him, and the appointment was given to Mac

gillivray.

All arrangements being at last completed, the natu-

ralists finally left London on the 1st of April.

s

CHAPTER X.

THE H5GEAN SEA.

Leaving London on the 1st of April 1841, Edward

Forbes and his fellow-naturalist, William Thompson,

journeyed by Paris and Lyons to Marseilles, whence a

coasting packet conveyed them, by Leghorn, Naples, and

the Straits of Messina, to Malta. This circuitous route

had its advantages, inasmuch as it brought the travellers

within sight of much famous scenery, while the delays at

the intermediate ports enabled them to make short inland

excursions, as to Pisa and through Naples. At Malta,

on the 17th of the month, they found the “Beacon”

ready to start, and only waiting them arrival. Forbes

immediately adapted himself to his change of abode,

and the same afternoon wrote home to his father that

he was fairly installed in the “ Beacon,” and found the

quarters most comfortable. The vessel, indeed, being

fitted up expressly for surveying service, was adapted in

every way to scientific usages, and formed in consequence

a most advantageous home to a naturalist.

A fair wind on the morning of the 21st bore the

“ Beacon ” away from Malta, but it eventually shifted,

and drove the vessel into the Bay of Navarino, where

Forbes spent three busy days, dipping his dredge for the

if

*

0 :


first time in the Grecian seas. It was the evening of

the 6 th of May before the anchor was dropped at Syra,

the central port of the Archipelago.

When Captain Graves left England it was his inten-

tion to prosecute the hydrographical survey during the

summer round the coasts of Canclia, and Forbes antici-

pated a rich harvest of results, botanical and zoological,

from the ascent of its snow-capped mountains. Coasting

round Cape Matapan, they saw the white peaks in the

far distance sleeping peacefully on the deep blue sea.

But on reaching Syra they learned that these same peaks,

so placid themselves, were yet looking down on a scene

of wild tumult and uproar, for the natives had risen in

revolt against the Turks, and bloodshed and rapine were

spreading through the island;with the risk of being

thus regarded by both parties as spies, and shot accord-

ingly, it became plainly impossible to proceed with the

survey of Candia.

During the uncertainty of the news from the island,

the “ Beacon” remained anchored at Paros, and Forbes

employed himself, and likewise not a few of his naval

comrades, botanizing, zoologizing, and geologizing in

turn. The few weeks of his intercourse with the officers

and crew had sufficed to enlist all their sympathy and

assistance. “ The first lieutenant,” says Captain Graves,“ though anxious, as all first lieutenants are, to keep the

decks clean, never objected to the contents of the dredge

being spread out, but almost became a convert.” Thecaptain’s cabin was turned into a kind of museum, labo-

ratory, and store-room, where the various animals brought

up from the deep were dissected, drawn, or stowed away

276 MEMOIR OF CHAP. X.

in bottles, the captain himself lending every assistance,

and eliciting many a quiet clinical lecture from the“ oyster-dredger,” as the sailors term a naturalist.

“ If was quite amusing,” Captain Graves continues,“ to see how Forbes gained the good opinion of the sailors

of the £ Beacon/ and how they all endeavoured to add

to his collections. If a boat returned from surveying,

there were always some shells for Mr. Forbes. If the

seine was hauled at night, a lanthorn was always at

hand when the fish were taken out, to look for curios (as

Jack termed them) for their friend, and whether addi-

tions or not, the donor always received an encouraging

answer, his present was accepted, the sailor felt gratified,

and was only anxious to search after other treasures of

the deep.”

With a whole crew of assistants, and the accumulat-

ing results of his own explorations, there was, of course,

ample scope for the microscope and the pencil hi the

evenings. And pleasant evenings they were when, the

surveys and dredgings of the day over, the officers met

in the cabin round Forbes, who, with the microscope at

his eye, and a pencil in his hand, sketched the anatomy

of the organisms that had been caught during the day,

chatting the while, in his own simple, impressive way,

about the form and habits of the creatures before them,

and enlivening the description with many touches of

quiet humour. Horn’s thus spent passed quickly away,

and when at last the microscope was put up, it was only

necessary to place a few scraps of paper before Forbes,

to open up another inexhaustible source of amusement.

“ He would draw groups,” says Captain Graves, “ in


which we were all included as connected with our com-

mon pursuit during the day, placing himself conspicuous

if anything ridiculous had occurred.”

On the 6 th of June, when he had been in Paros less

than a month, he thus wrote to Dr. Percy :“ At present

I am devoting my time more to observation than to

mere collecting, and I am especially occupying myself

drawing all the unpreservable animals (which in these

seas have been sadly neglected) that fall in myway. I have got some good work done already,

having made coloured drawings of near ninety species,

many of which are apparently new, and throw much

light on important biological questions. I have also

commenced collections in botany, geology, and various

departments of zoology, which are beginning to make

a show.

“ My own chief object in view is to ascertain the

exact relations of animals and plants to each other in

these islands, so as hereafter to have a good basis for the

illustration of certain points in geology and philosophical

zoology, which can only be cleared up by a more precise,

and, at the same time, more generalized observation of

the Mediterranean than has hitherto been gone into.”

While at Paros he roamed with two or three com-panions over all the island, and likewise made excursions

to Antiparos and Naxia. In these rambles it was his

delight to encase himself in an old shooting-jacket, full

of pockets;

his long hair, surmounted by a “Jim Crow ”

hat, hung down his neck; his feet were shod with a

pair of primitive country boots, into which he tuckedthe loose ends of his trousers

;a botanical vasculum was

278 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. X.

slung across his shoulders, and a stout hammer supplied

the place of a walking-stick. Thus attired, he wanderedover the hills and valleys of Paros and Naxia, dined anddanced with the natives, pitched his tent on the hill-

sides, dredged among the bays and islets, and plied his

hammer along its shores. And though ever intent on

the rocks, plants, and animals that came in his way, he

had an eye too for the manners and customs of the

islanders, as well as an artistic appreciation of the

scenery of their isles. His letters contain numerous

references to the Turkish and Greek population of the

iEgean, and of both, but especially of the former, he

speaks in terms of commendation. He somewhat quali-

fies his estimate of the Greeks, though in one letter he

foretells that “they will be a great people yet, and are

almost as interesting as the shell-fish that live on their

shores.”

Much of the transcendent loveliness with which his

early fancy had invested the “ Isles of Greece,” was

rapidly, and sometimes even rudely, dispelled by these

excursions. He found a group of bare rocky islands,

less picturesque in themselves than our own Hebrides,

and owing their attractiveness, apart from historical

associations, almost solely to the clear cloudless sky

above them, and the deep blue waters that laved their

shores. Yet were they hallowed scenes : their very bar-

renness had in it something sacred;their old civilisa-

tion was long since gone, but no new one had arisen to

efface the memorials of the past. And so, as Forbes

wandered, antique recollections crowded upon him.

These isles and seas had for him something more than


the common interest, vivid though it be, with which

every one regards them. The seas and shores around

him were the same seas and shores that had yielded

their denizens to the father of natural history, and now

he was re-cliscovering those forms which, in the hands of

Aristotle, had laid the foundation of his favourite science.

Thus, in addition to the historical interest of the scenery,

every plant on the hill-sides, every shell on the shore,

every fish in the sea, had an interest of its own, and in

gathering them, Forbes felt himself, in a peculiar sense,

on consecrated ground. The shadow of one great name

was around him, a name which, the further his own

researches proceeded, he felt himself the more constrained

to revere. It was doubtless with the recollection of

these, his earliest explorations in the Mediterranean,

that in after years he wrote :—“ Who that has ever

visited the borders of this classic sea, has not felt at the

first sight of its waters a glow of reverent rapture akin

to devotion, and an instinctive sensation of thanksgiving

at being permitted to stand before these hallowed waves ?

All that concerns the Mediterranean is of the deepest

interest to civilized man, for the history of its progress

is the history of the development of the world;the

memory of the great men who have lived and died

around its banks;the recollection of the undying works

that have come thence to delight us for ever;the story

of patient research and brilliant discoveries connected

with every physical phenomenon presented by its waves

and currents, and with every order of creatures dwelling

in and around its waters. The science of the Medi-

terranean is the epitome of the science of the world.

MEMOIR OF CHAP. X.280

The very name of that inland sea is the text from which

the sermon on all other seas must be preached.” 1

Early in June, there being still no prospect of visit-

ing Candia, Thompson, who was sick of the sea, parted

company with the “ Beacon,” and started for England.

By this change, an additional amount of work devolved

upon our naturalist, for his companion had agreed to

record observations on the vertebrata, both terrestrial

and marine, while Forbes himself undertook his ownfavourite invertebrate division. He had reluctantly,

therefore, to abandon the attempt to collect the terres-

trial vertebrates. Such birds as could be shot by his

surveying comrades were skinned and added to the stores

in the “ Beacon.'’ He allowed no reptile to escape;and

with the aid of the seine and line, he continued to add

to his collection of fishes. But the great bulk of his

observations lay, of course, among the invertebrata,

chiefly the mollusca, owing to the comparative scarcity

of radiate animals in the bays round Paros.

He had now been a month in this island. He had

scoured its hills, valleys, and shores for plants, insects,

and molluscs, and the collections and notes which he

had made represented pretty fully the flora and fauna of

Paros. He was ready and eager, therefore, to avail

himself of a triangulating cruise with Lieutenant Spratt

among the neighbouring islands.

Their object was first to visit Naxia and ascend Mount

Jupiter, to make certain observations for the Coast Sur-

vey. Starting, accordingly, about the middle of June in

the “ Fanny ”—a boat of some ten tons, which acted as one

1 Literary Papers. By Edward Forbes. London, Reeve, 1855, p. 106.


of thetendersto the “Beacon”—theypasseddown the Anti-

paros channel, among islands of marble and slate, picked

up one of the assistant surveyors on the way, and after sail-

ing nearly round Paros, cast anchor at Naxia, in a sandy

bay among promontories of granite and gneiss. One of

the lieutenants was stationed there at the time, and with

him they arranged their ascent into the interior. It was

a short but pleasant journey. Their route lay first

through some salt marshes, abounding with mud-tortoises

and green lizards;the road-sides were lined with aloes,

and mulberry trees, laden with fruit, dotted the fields.

Some parts of the way led through labyrinthine thickets

of reeds and brambles clustering around the base of some

steep granitic slopes, up which the mules toiled in long

eccentric procession. Many picturesque castles, once the

abode of the Venetian nobles, crowned the crags. In

some of these the travellers were fain to rest, meeting

everywhere with great kindness, especially from a fine

old Greek, who had done good service in the days of the

Revolution, and who was now spending his old age

quietly in a picturesque chateau among the Naxian hills.

His son accompanied them on their journey along a

richly-wooded valley dotted with villages, and encircled

with steep jagged hills on every side, save one, where a

gap in the chain revealed the clustering islands of the

blue /Egean. Towards evening, they arrived in a village

at the upper end of this valley, on the slopes of MountJupiter. Purchasing a lamb, they fared sumptuously,

and spent the evening on the house-top gazing down the

lovely dale, and watching the groups of peasants on the

neighbouring roofs, where the men chatted in groups,

282 MEMOIR OE CIIAP. X.

while the women plied the spindle. Throughout the day,

h orbes had been noting the natural history features as he

passed along; every halt had given him an opportunity

to explore the zoology of a fountain or rivulet along with

the plants which bloomed around it : both the fauna

and the flora he found to resemble those of Paros. Early

next morning the summit of Mount Jupiter was gained.

In the ascent a few plants occurred, not elsewhere seen

in the island; but the summit, though 3300 feet high,

showed the same plants and shells which characterized

the plains. The weather proving too misty for the ob-

servations, the party descended by the Cave of Jupiter, a

large cavern romantically situated, but with hardly any

stalactites. In a river close at hand Forbes was delighted

to meet with his old friend, the little Ancylus jiuvicitilis

along with two pctludinas. From this point the descent

lay along the track of the previous day, the travellers

calling again at the chateaux, and receiving a renewal

of their hospitality;while at one of them, Forbes, not a

little against his will, was constrained by a Greek to pre-

scribe for his wife. They arrived at their tents late the

same night. Next day, in making some visits in the

neighbouring town, Forbes was again compelled with

equal reluctance to act the part of physician.

The remainder of their short stay in Naxia comprised

a visit to the Emery Mines, and an ascent through val-

leys richly clad with vines, planes, olives, and oleanders,

to the summit of Mount Zia, from which, the weather

being now clearer, they could see at intervals a wide ex-

panse of the yEgean with its islands, and, far away to

eastward, the faint outline of the mountain peaks of Asia


Minor. In spite of “ mel-tems”—furious winds from the

north-east—which compelled them to put into lonely

creeks and harbours, they succeeded in beating round

Naxia, and their mission being now over, joined the

“ Beacon” at Port Naussa in Paros, after an absence of

nearly three weeks.

After two days in Paros, naturalizing and getting the

news (for letters from home had arrived during them

absence), they set out on another cruise of a fortnight.

Revisiting Naxos they sailed round to Serpho, Thermia,

Syra, Myconi, and Delos. At Serpho they rambled

among the iron-mines, now wholly abandoned, and over

such heaps of slag as to suggest whether it might not be

owing to the demand for fuel in Serpho that the Cyclades

had been stripped of their wood. The corpse-like head-

dress described by Tournefort, as worn by the women of

Siphanto, likewise characterized those of Serpho;a white

towel wrapped round the head, and a white bandage

strapped across the nose ! The natives seemed an indus-

trious people, and in spite of the proverbial ruggedness of

their isle, they had covered its valleys with vineyards andfields, and withmeadows verdant asthose of greenEngland.

Land shells, however, seemed to have no love for Serpho.

Dredging down Serpho Bay, on the way to Thermia,Forbes had great success

;sinking the dredge in water

as deep as 95 to 100 fathoms. Thermia detained himonly a day, during which he visited the hot springs andascended to the highest point in the island. But theviews were not striking, though he found this in somemeasure compensated by the abundance of the land-shells, of which there were many species.


The ramble over Delos, amid endless heaps of shape-

less ruins, filled up a pleasant day, of which some meagrememoranda are concluded by a list of shells noticed on

the shore and in the interior. Reaching Myconi he

ascended the most eastern of its hills—a mass of ser-

pentine about a thousand feet high, where, as in Serpho,

he remarked the characteristic abundance of water-shells

on the rock, and the corresponding absence of land-

shells—a phenomenon not due, as he remarked, to any

difference of vegetation peculiar to the serpentine tracts,

for the plants of this hill did not differ from those in

other districts of the island.

1 From shells he passed

to the study of costumes, and marked with regret that

the picturesque dress once worn by the females of My-coni was now to be seen only on the oldest

;the young-

women had adopted a Frank dress, while the middle-

aged dames blended the extremes, by fantastically com-

bining the old dress with the new.

An unlucky “ mel-tem” detained the “Fanny” several

days at Myconi, during which Forbes had an oppor-

tunity of watching the operations of the sponge-divers,

until the breeze moderated, and allowed the vessel to

return to Paros, where, to his delight, he found that

the boxes of natural history material, which had been

anxiously expected for weeks, had at length arrived

from England.

Before making further collections he employed him-

self, from the 19th of July to the 5th of August, putting-

up the specimens already gathered, arranging and com-

1 The reverse of this was the case in limestone at great distances, simply

Lycia, for there the serpentine tracts from the distinctive character of their

could he distinguished from those of vegetation .— Travels in Lycia, n. 159.


pleting liis notes, and bringing np the arrears which the

last five weeks of busy dredging and collecting had

thrown upon his hands. To his sister he writes

“ The captain having fitted up a house on shore, I have

the great cabin at present to myself, and am making a

sad mess of it, skinning fish and preserving specimens/

Unfortunately the delay in the arrival of the boxes had

prevented him from collecting plants to the extent

he could have wished. While at Malta he bought

a cpiantity of paper, but his stock was too small to

admit of the preparation of many duplicates. And now,

when an ample supply had arrived, the flowering season

was weUnigh over, and it would have been useless to

commence a systematic collection that year. To botanize

the islands thoroughly, he would require to begin in

April, and he looked forward accordingly to a botanical

spring next year. In the meantime, he had endeavoured

to make as complete a herbarium as his opportunities

would allow, and the results of his examination showed

that the vegetation of all the islands yet visited was

exactly similar, while up to a height of 3500 feet, the

highest peak he had ascended, the plants of the Cyclades

yielded no trace of a sub-alpine character.

On the 5th of August another cruise began. This

time the “Fanny” was replaced by the “Isabella;” a

ship’s launch considerably larger than the former, decked

over and fitted out as a tender. The cabin, such as it

was, had only sleeping-places for two, on hard lockers,

while the men were sheltered under a deck forward.

But the accommodation, though thus limited, wasgreater than in the “Fanny” and Forbes embarked

286 MEMOIR OE (JIIAP. X.

with great glee on board of what he called his floating

palace. This cruise was to embrace a much wider

circuit than the last;

for, after visiting the southern

islands, it was Lieutenant Spratt’s intention to stretch

across to Cerigo and the southern end of the Morea,

and to be absent from the “ Beacon ” for six weeks

or two months. In a nearly dead calm they sailed

from Paros, the current bearing them slowly onwards

through a glassy sea, unrippled save by the frequent

plash of the dolphins that gambolled past, until, late

at night, and just as the first moanings of the

“ mel-tem ” were beginning, they dropped anchor under

the cliffs of Siplianto. Two days were passed in this

island ascending to its summit to make observations for

the survey, visiting its monasteries and noting its geo-

logy and natural history. Land shells occurred in great

abundance among the slate and marble rocks, contrast-

ing with the marked paucity of similar forms at Serpho;

indeed, Forbes remarks that they were more numerous

here than he had ever seen them in any locality. Asnorting breeze bore them rapidly to Nio, where they

visited Homer’s tomb, and enjoyed the frank and hearty

hospitality of the Niotes. The wind had gradually in-

creased to a storm that detained them four days, three

of which Forbes spent dredging the bay where they lay

at anchor, and collecting material for comparison with

similar muddy bays of the Atlantic. They at last quitted

Nio, but erelong it blew so hard that to weather Amorgo

was found impossible, and they had therefore no resource

but to beat about all night in a raging sea, the

dangers of which they knew not, until at daybreak they

1S41.EDWARD FORBES. 287

succeeded in running for shelter to Port Vathy, one ot

the bays of Amorgo, surrounded by high and rugged

mountains. The three days spent in this island were

among the pleasantest our naturalist had yet enjoyed

among the Cyclades. The scenery had a mingled wild-

ness and beauty such as he had never before seen;huge

precipices plunging from the highest peaks of the island

sheer down into the sea, deep ravines of limestone, the

steep bare walls of which rose from tangled thickets of

vines, figs, and olives, the rich colouring of the vegeta-

tion contrasting with the grey and purple tints of the

rocks, and the play of light and shadow, varying with

the broken outline of cliff, crag, and coppice, formed alto-

gether a scenery which the artistic eye of Edward Forbes

could well appreciate. Nor, in spite of the acknowledged

poverty of Amorgo, did he find the people out of har-

mony with their island. In the cool evening, when

returning from the rambles of the day, he occasionally

encountered groups of peasants laden with grapes from

their vineyards, who never passed without pressing him

and his companion to help themselves from the baskets.

The monks, too, delighted him. Like those he had seen in

the other islands, they were gentlemanly, intelligent men,

with no tinge of asceticism, but showing a generous and

hearty hospitality. Under their guidance, the travellers

visited the romantic monastery of Panagia, perched like

a swallow’s nest on the face of a great cliff. While

Forbes sat sketching this strange group of buildings, a

monk from the neighbouring town, who was passing at

the time on his way to the monastery, begged leave to

examine the drawing, and being apparently satisfied with


tlie powers of the artist, requested to have his likeness

taken. The request having met with a ready compliance,

the monk continued his ascent vastly pleased with the

courtesy of the strangers. Next evening, however,

Forbes and his friend were somewhat surprised, on enter-

ing the town of Amorgo, to find themselves waylaid bythe same monk, who entreated them to visit his cell,

where they found laid out for them a repast of fine

grapes and rakee. While they were enjoying his hospi-

tality, he proceeded to attire himself in full canonicals,

and finished with an entreaty that Forbes should sketch

him in colours. This too was cheerfully granted, though

doubtless not without some sly joke upon the vanity of

the host. In the end, however, it appeared that vanity

was not the only actuating motive;the monk himself

was a self-taught artist, and of some merit, as the port-

folio which he pulled out very well showed. To meet

with a brother of the brush in Amorgo, was an event in

his life which he judged could only be fitly comme-

morated by having his own portrait painted.

From Amorgo, the“Isabella” steered southwards to

Santorin, through swarms of the little fly-like pteropods

flitting along the surface of a tranquil sea. Entering

the great bay of Santorin, with its gigantic cottage-

crowned precipices, shooting up from an abyss which a

line of 1500 feet could not fathom, Forbes found him-

self for the first time in a region of recent volcanoes.

Landing on Nea-Kaimeni, the voyagers scrambled up

the sides of that great cinder-heap, on slopes of loose-

ashes and masses of lava, among which bloomed in pro-

fusion the yellow-flowered Gctrlina, so common in the


isles. In the crater, among tufts of the mountain-

bracken (Pteris aquilina), grew some solitary fig-trees,

the fruit of which was eagerly gathered. The Statice

clustered along the banks of a sulphury pool, in which

numerous boat-insects were paddling about, but no land

shells could anywhere be seen. Yet the isle was not

wholly devoid of traces of molluscan life, for in rambling

along the shore, that glistened with the rich hues of

volcanic sand, Forbes came upon a mass of pumice,

enclosing a layer of sea-shells(Pectunculi

,etc.), evidently

occupying their original bed. It was, in truth, a coral

bottom, such as he had dredged dozens of times in

thirty-five or forty fathoms’ depth ;and as it lay be-

tween sheets of hardened pumice, four to six feet above

the water edge, it clearly evidenced that, after a period

of volcanic activity, shells and corals had spread over

the floor of the sea, until their growth was checked by

fresh igneous ejections, and by a final elevation of the

sea-bed to at least 200 feet above its previous level.1

Anchorage is, of course, unknown in the bay of

Santorin, which, in truth, occupies the site of an ancient

crater, not yet wholly dormant, for in calms and in

south winds, say the Tlieriotes, there are often rumblings

and bubblings, and the water assumes a sulphurous hue.

Sailing across this abyss to the harbour of Thera, if b}r

that name they might designate a mere indentation in a

wall of rock, which rose 600 feet above the water, and

sank to an unknown depth below it, they moored the

“ Isabella ” to the rows of white-washed pillars which in

Santorin take the place of anchors.

1 Brit. A ss. Rep 1843, p. 177 ;Lyell’s Principles of Geology, 9tli edit. p. 443.

T

‘290 MEM Gilt OE C1IAP. X.

I he exploration of this curious island occupied three

days. Toiling up the steep zig-zag road, cut along the

lace of the precipitous cliff, they found on the summit a

well-built town with a half-Frank population, beyond

which lay a garden of vineyards in the finest order.

What in itself forms perhaps the most barren spot

among the Cyclades, had been scrupulously cultivated,

and the labours of the islanders had eventually trans-

formed the margin of a crater into a paradise. Mount

St. Elias, to which, as the highest hill of Santorin,

Messrs. Spratt and Forbes proceeded, to make the tri-

angulating observations, consisted of a metamorphic

limestone, rising out of the volcanic eruptions;and

they were not a little interested to notice that, imme-

diately on stepping upon this calcareous rock, they

encountered land shells ( Clausilia ccerulea and Helix

), which could not be discovered on the volcanic

part of the island, save near the town, where the cpian-

tities of Helix aspersa and vermiculctta had been in-

troduced from Crete as articles of food. The monks

who had perched themselves comfortably on the top of

the mountain, were a portly, hospitable set of men, among

whom lived the priest Cairi, in a kind of monastic im-

prisonment. Forbes spent some time in conversing with

him in his cell, and found him possessed of great infor-

mation and knowledge of the world, he having travelled

through Italy, studied two years in Paris, and visited

England to see Oxford .

1

1 Professor Blackie of Edinburgh has

furnished the following particulars of

this Greek. “ Cairi,” he says, “ was a

great man. He taught philosophy at

Andros, and formed a school of devoted

Here again Forbes’s medical©

admirers. By the favour of Mr. Glau-

copis, one of his disciples, I have been

put in possession of some of his philo-

sophical works, which are written in a

beautiful style, and display learning,

1841. EDWAltD FORBES. 291

powers were called into requisition, as all who had any

ailment, and doubtless many who had none, came to

him for remedies.

Sailing from Santorin in another “ mel-tem, theyO

passed a second stormy night at sea, this time with

greater risk and damage, losing their jib-boom, and hav-

ing a quantity of dishes broken, until they anchored in a

sandy bay off Milo. The storm and fog still continuing,

they quitted that island, and making a rapid voyage west-

ward, dropped anchor in Servi Bay, at the south end of

the Morea, under the high, richly-tinted cliffs of St. Angelo.

Dredging among the inlets and bays of this neighbour-

hood, naturalizing along the shore, and ascending for

about 2000 feet among the hills on the east side of the

bay, comprised the sum of them six days' stay at Servi.

On the third of September they sailed .to Cerigo,

1 dredging by the way in twenty, eighty, and one hundred

fathoms. Cerigo being a British island, the voyagers

found themselves at home among English officers, and

cj spent three pleasant days in rambling over the country.

Among the more interesting scenes was a calcareous cave,

somewhat like that of Naxia, but much finer, from the

number and fantastic, often statuesque, forms of the sta-

lactites. One of these, in the centre of the grotto, so

closely resembled a worn female statue, that it required

but little effort of the imagination to picture the cavern

profound thought, and sound judgmentin no ordinary degree. The most cha-

racteristic trait of his philosophy, is the

deep root which it has in religion, a

quality which well entitles him to he

called the Plato of the Modern Greeks.

Notwithstanding this profound piety,

however, which breathes in all his works,

not being exactly orthodox according to

the local standard of the Greek Church,

he was persecuted as a heretic, suffered

imprisonment, and died with all the

honours of a martyr in the year 1852. I

have little hesitation in setting himdown as one of the most remarkablemen that modern Greece has produced.”


as a subterranean temple dedicated to the patron goddess

ol the isle. From. Cerigo the “Isabella” paid a visit to

Cerigotto, partly for the purpose of ascertaining the truth

of a report that the latter island was rising from the sea.

Before they landed, the truth of the statement had be-

come clear, from the dark belt, about nine feet high,

which rose from the existing sea-margin and woundalong the island, following all the indentations and irre-

gularities of the coast-line. This band seemed much fur-

rowed, and on examining it, Forbes found twelve furrows

or narrow terraces so marked, that on a steep rock on

the left side of the harbour, they resembled a line of steps

cut for the ascent of the rock. At a height of eleven feet

above the present sea-level (as defined by Balani, etc.)

he cut a deep score with the number eleven, and date

1841, with the expectation that the mark would serve as

a test of the rate of elevation, for it appeared that the

upward movement still continued.

Among the results of the Cerigotto visit, not the least

interesting, was the limitation of the antiquity of the

island’s upheaval. On the left side of the harbour, near

the entrance, there is a hill crowned with some ruins—

remains of temples, baths, catacombs, and fortifications.

Descending from these towards the sea, Forbes discovered

a dock cut in the limestone, for launching galleys. The

lower limit of the excavations ceased at the upper edge of

the old sea-margin, and hence he inferred that the island

had risen nine feet since its colonization by the ancient

Greeks. This change of level, moreover, had operated

in a most marked way on the fauna of the island, and in

working out this question, we see another instance of the


readiness with which Forbes had begun to dovetail zoology

and geology. “ The hill on which these ruins stand/' he

notes, “ is separated from the hills nearer the present

town by a deep ravine—a water-course. Here I found

a raised beach, exactly where it ought to be, according

to the former height of the isle. It is now overgrown

with bushes of Pistachio lentiscus, etc. It is composed

of sand and shore-stones, mingled with cerithium {sp.

vulgatum and mamillatum), nassa neritoidea, and reticu-

lata, and other shells, most of which live in sand at the

mouth of rivers. Now, as in the whole island there is

no sandy shore on which these animals could live, a

change has been operated on the fauna in consequence

of the rise. These are not shells such as are eaten

(there are heaps of these also, chiefly trochus) ; but must

have been true natives of this locality.” Other points

of interest occurred while exploring the geology and

natural history of this curious island, and altogether this

visit was one of the most useful as regarded his scientific

progress which Forbes had yet made.

Returning to Cerigo, he examined more carefully the

geology of that island, especially the subdivisions of its

tertiary strata, the deep gorges and cliffs affording himadmirable sections. One of the most abundant fossils

was the pecten, so abundant, indeed, as to attract

vulgar notice, and our naturalist suggests that possibly

the immense quantities of it in Cerigo (the ancient

Cytherea) may have been the reason why this shell [?]

was held sacred to Venus .

1

The voyage from Cerigo to Milo proved long andi It was the Porcellane or Cowrie that was held sacred to Venus at Guidos.'

294 MEMOIR OF CJ1AI*. X.

tedious ; thunderstorms, waterspouts, adverse winds,

and stormy seas, all conspiring to keep the “ Isabella”

uneasily beating about between the islands. Neverthe

less it became at intervals calm enough to allow the

dredge to be sunk to depths varying from 100 to 200

fathoms, until the anchor was dropped in the great

natural harbour of Milo. After ascending the hills and

zoologizing along the shores of this island with no par-

ticular results, the voyagers started once more for the

rendezvous at Naxos. Dredging at intervals by way

of Argentera, they reached Port Naussa on the 23d

September, after an absence of seven weeks, and thus

ended our naturalist’s third cruise in the Aegean Sea.

In writing to Mr. Thompson, three days after re-

turning to Naxos, Forbes thus briefly sums up the

nature and results of his researches :—“ I have been

incessantly occupied, and have made two long cruises.

. . . Weather has been very bad, and we were sadly

knocked about by storms all the summer, but I suffered

in no way. Whenever it was possible we dredged, and

the results are most important. I have found a defined

fauna different from any other of the marine zones,

between 90 and 200 fathoms in these seas, and an

exact correspondence in its productions over all the

examined part of the AEgean—a stretch of 200 miles.

1 have found star-fishes alive at 200 fathoms;Tdlincv

and Rissoce at 150 (!) ;a bed of chalk full of Foramini-

fera, and the shells of Pteropodcc forming at the bottom

of these seas ! Moreover, the most characteristic shells

of this hitherto unknown region, are species only known

to conchologists as fossil : I only have seen them alive


and kicking. You can appreciate the value both to

geology and zoology of the discovery of this new sea-

country. We have dredged deeper than ever was done

before (as recorded), but it could never have been effected

except by Ball’s little dredge, which has proved in-

valuable. Tell Ball so.

“ On land, I have also found a number of interesting

results, especially as to distribution, but have not done

anything as to birds as yet—really from want of time,

for every moment has been occupied. I have now near

200 drawings of animals by me. Everything marine

has been well looked to, and no fish escaped skinning

if worth it. I let no fish pass, if the kind is not in the

collection. Next year I may, perhaps, take up the land

animals. All reptiles are of course secured, and all

coleopterous insects, of which my collection now looks

very respectable.”

Writing by the same mail to Mr. Patterson, he says,

“ The sum of results I have gathered hi this expedition

is most curious and interesting, and will end, I am sure,

in conveying a clearer view of the Aegean Sea, considered

zoologically and zoo -geologically, than any existing

account of any other sea, not excepting the Irish. Mydeep-sea dredging has shown me the necessity of a

similar course at home, and the incompleteness of our

home work until such is done. But how very few of

our zoologists understand these matters rightly. I al-

most despair of any work of this kind being appreciated

in the present state of our science.”

During the absence of the “ Isabella,” whether owing

to Forbes’s medical skill, or to healthv air and food, her«/


crew had escaped the prevalent summer malaria. Butthe “ Beacon ” had not been so fortunate. Fever of a

deadly kind had broken out at Naxos, and when the

voyagers returned they found all in gloom, for half the

crew were invalided, and one of the lieutenants, the

only victim, had died. The cheerful face of Edward

Forbes was welcomed with no ordinary pleasure by the

saddened circle at Port Naussa, and went far to bring

back the old heartiness. For a fortnight he remained

there, arranging his collections, packing and preserving

specimens, making up his notes, and preparing for

another cruise. By the 9th of October, the “ Isabella”

was once more ready. Owing to the promotion of her

late commander, the master of the “Beacon/’ Mr. Hoskyn,

received her in charge, and 'with him Forbes started for

the coasts of Asia Minor.

In beginning another cruise, with the prospect of

more continuous research in a limited area, Forbes saw

that a great effort had now to be made. Although he

had at intervals sent to England some of the more

important results of the dredgings, he had failed to

awaken that interest in his work which he anticipated,

and which he knew it deserved. He had looked for

help from the British Association, but in vain;

his

researches received commendation, but no assistance.

The Geological Society, more fully impressed with the

value of such data as he was collecting in the iEgean,

had voted him the balance of the Wollaston Fund (£30),

and with this sum, and as much of his own, he began to

meditate an excursion to Egypt, and a dredging expe-

dition down the Red Sea. In the meantime, however,

1S41. EDWAED FOEBES. 297

he had arranged to accompany Mr. Hoskyn, and dredge

the Gulf of Macri with critical exactness, registering the

depths, and increasing the number of observations, whilst

his companion was employed in the same boat with the

soundings. The cruisings of the past summer had

enabled him to discard many of the notions with which

he had been impressed, in common with other naturalists,

as to the zoology of the AEgean;and the new facts

he had gained, though slow of attracting attention

at home, were nevertheless of the highest importance.

They came up one by one in harmony with his observa-

tions among the seas of his own land, and thus the

philosophical views which had been gradually dawning

upon him at home received a rapid development. He

felt sure that they were true, and this was enough to

urge him on, for the “ oineromathic fire ” still burned

strongly within him. He knew, too, that ere long their

value could not fail to be fully recognised, and he there-

fore set sail for Asia Minor with increased determination

to work.

The “ Isabella ” sailed from Paros on the 9th of

October. Her course lay by Patmos, Cnidus, and Rhodes

to the Bay of Kalamaki, on the south coast of Lycia.

The voyage, short as it was, proved full of interest, for

it enabled Forbes to spend a day or two among the

picturesque streets of Rhodes, and (what he valued still

more) to set foot in Asia. Speaking of the visit to the

port of Cnidus, he writes :—“ This was my first step

into Asia, and to a naturalist all was promising. Instead

of the dearth of insects, so disheartening in the Grecian

isles, coleoptera abounded under every stone, and on

298 MEMOIR OF C1IAP. X.

each heap of cow-dung. New shells, too, gladdened me,

and several pretty plants.”

As the first part of the survey operations was to fix

certain points on the mainland of Lycia, Forbes had an

opportunity of visiting the ruins of Xanthus, and manyother ancient cities, ascending the mountains of Massi-

cytus to a height of about 9000 feet, and naturalizing

through a country till then unexplored. The route

followed by the travellers is indicated in Mr. Hoskyns

paper,1 and the botanical, zoological, and geological re-

sults of the tour were combined by Forbes with those of

a later journey, and published in 1847. 2

The second object of the visit to Lycia was to com-

plete the hydrographical survey of the Gulf of Macri.

From the beginning of November till the 24th of the

following month, Forbes continued his dredgings among

the bays and islands of that part of the Mediterranean,

the great depth of the water (sometimes 230 fathoms)

at a short distance from land offering a new and curious

field for observation. The weather proved unusually

tempestuous;

he had, therefore, frequent occasion to

remain on shore, and busied himself with the geology

of the neighbourhood, and especially in detecting the

changes of level of the coast line, and in tracing the

progress of recent marine formations. 3

At the harbour of Macri he had likewise an oppor-

tunity of studying closely the fauna of the littoral

zone, thereby adding some important facts to his pre-

vious notes.

1 Geograph. Soc. Jour. xii. 152. Spratt. Vol. n. See especially p. 120,

et seq.

.

2 Travels in Lycia. By Forbes and a Ibid. H. 188, et seq.


Blending natural history pursuits with the explora-

tion of cities that had been lost for centuries, sketching

tombs, temples, and theatres, mingling among the

peasantry, and prescribing now and then for their ail-

ments, sometimes benighted amid briars, ruins, and

jackals in the wild uplands of Lycia, and well-nigli

wrecked among the rocks and skerries that fringe their

shores, these three months in Asia Minor formed no

uneventful period in the life of Edward Forbes. The

storms and dangers by which it was marked may, per-

haps, have had some share in making it eventually a

pleasant retrospect, but the main source of gratification

to which it gave rise arose from the completion of his

JEgean researches. The dredge now seldom brought up

anything new;he seemed to have exhausted the trea-

sures of that classic sea, and he had done so in a way in

which no part of the ocean had yet been examined.

Much that he had previously only been conjecturing

now received the verification of facts;much, too, that

he had not even conjectured gradually took definite

shape, and there eventually emerged that philosophical

outline which appeared in his Report on the rEgean Sea,

and which raised him to a high rank among living

naturalists.

Before tracing his further progress, let us glance very

briefly at some of the scientific results of Forbes’s cruis-

ings in the Mediterranean. It will be remembered howearly lie had begun to subdivide the British seas into

zones of depth, characterized by distinct assemblages of

animals. This bathymetrical principle of classification

was also applied by him, with singular success, to the


iEgean. He found that the latter sea could he sub-

divided into eight provinces of depth;

first, as around

his own native islands, came the littoral zone, which,

from the feebleness of the tides in those seas, did not

exceed a range of two fathoms. The second region

reached from 2 to 10, the third from 10 to 20 fathoms

below the sea-level. The fourth region ranged downto 35 fathoms, the fifth from 35 to 55, the sixth from

55 to 80, and the seventh from 80 to 105. Each of

these zones showed a marked and peculiar assemblage of

living beings, and could even be further separated into

sub-regions. The eighth region included all the space

explored below 105 fathoms, and embraced a depth of

750 feet. It was an unknown tract—a new sea-country

now added by Edward Forbes to the domain of the

naturalist. In the lower zones, the number of species

gradually diminished as the dredge sank towards the

abysses. From 230 fathoms below the sea-level—the

greatest depth Forbes reached—he drew up yellow mud

with the remains of pteropods and minute foraminifera,

and occasionally a shell. From a comparison of his

observations, he conjectured that the zero of animal

life would probably be found somewhere about 300

fathoms.

One of the most important results of these researches

was the discovery that those species which have the

greatest vertical range, are likewise those which extend

over the widest areas of sea, and hence that the

range of a species in depth is commensurate with its

geographical distribution. Another interesting and sug-

gestive law of marine distribution, not hitherto proved,


was clearly established by these observations. “The

assemblage of cosmopolitan species at the water s edge,

says Forbes, “ the abundance of peculiar climatal forms

in the highest zone where Celtic species are scarce,

the increase in the number of the latter as we descend,

and, when they again diminish, the representation of

northern forms in the lower regions, and the abundance

of the remains of Pteropoda in the lowest, with the

general aspect of the associations of species in ah, are

facts which fairly lead to an inference, that parallels in

latitude are equivalent to regions in depth, correspondent

to that law in terrestrial distribution which holds that

parallels in latitude are representative of regions of ele-

vation. In each case the analogy is maintained not by

identical species only, but mainly by representative

forms;and, accordingly, although we find fewer nor-

thern species in the faunas of the lower zones, the num-

ber of forms representative of northern species is so great

as to give them a much more boreal or sub-boreal cha-

racter, than is presented by those regions where identical

forms are more abundant.” 1

The bearing of these conclusions on geological specu-

lations, he readily perceived and applied. Their value,

too, was soon admitted when he explained them to the

British Association at Cork, and much of his scientific

work in after life consisted in working them out more

fully in their application to the present and past races of

plants and animals in Britain.

On the 23d of December the sounding-lead was

dipped for the last time, and on Christmas eve the

1 Report of the British Association, 1843, p. 130.

302 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. X.

Isabella entered tlie harbour of .Rhodes, on her wayto Athens to rejoin the “Beacon.” On reaching Rhodes,

however, the voyagers learned that Captain Graves hadjust been there, and left word for the “Isabella” to join

him immediately at Macri, whither he had gone with

Mr. Fellowes to arrange the removal of the Xanthian

marbles. This unexpected event changed Forbes’s whole

plans for the winter, and brought- him back again into

Lycia among the scenes of his former explorations.

He rejoined the “Beacon” at Macri on the 29th of

the month, and found Captain Graves on the eve of

starting on a visit to Xanthus, where Mr. Fellowes, with

a party of seamen, was engaged in excavating the sculp-

tures. For two months, Forbes continued with Captain

Graves, making excursions in the south-west part of

Lycia, among the sites of ancient cities, and through the

wild scenery of Mount Cragus. During this period

Xanthus presented a lively scene;

sailors working en-

thusiastically among the ruins, and natives gathering in

wondering groups to watch the discovery of the buried

treasure, which, according to oriental belief, lies con-

cealed amid every assemblage of ancient ruins. By the

end of February, the operations were considered at an

end;between seventy and eighty huge cases lay filled

with the relics of ancient art, and the excavating party

returned to the “ Beacon,” leaving behind the Rev. Mr.

Daniell, Lieutenant Spratt, and Edward Forbes, who

had resolved to make an exploratory journey through

Lycia.

As a full narrative of this three months’ tour was

published by Messrs. Spratt and Forbes, it need hardly


be more than referred to here .

1 Their route lay over

plain and mountain, and among the ruins of ancient

cities, the sites of which had been lost for many cen-

turies. Skirting the southern shores of Lycia, and as-

cending the valleys, which there open out towards the

sea, they visited the chain of cities from Xanthus to

Phaselis. Thence they journeyed by the route of Alex-

ander’s army,

2 through the defiles of Mount Taktalu and

Climax into the plains of Adalia, and, following still the

march of the Macedonian hero, ascended the mountain

pass of Tennessus, where, to their great delight, they

discovered the magnificent remains of that city, four-

thousand feet above the sea. Descending into Milyas,

they explored part of the route of the Consul Manlius,

by the marsh of Caralitis, and through the richly-watered

Cibyratis, gaining at last the district previously visited

by Messrs. Hoskyn and Forbes. After a traverse of the

mountain-ridge winch separates Cibyratis from the plain

of Almalee, they returned to the valley of the Xanthus,

and so back to the shores of the Mediterranean at

Leveesy, near Macri.

They had thus traversed Lycia twice; first along its

southern maritime border, and then through the moun-

tainous region where it merges into the neighbouring

provinces of Pisidia, Pamphylia, and Caria.

The country was alike new to the geographer, the

antiquary, and the naturalist, and the journey, therefore,

proved one continued source of delightful excitement.

Hardly a day passed without revealing traces of ancient

1 Travels in Lycia. Two vols. 1847.2 See Forbes’ Natural Histonj ofEuropean Seas, p. 57.

304 MEMOIR OF CIIaP. X.

art, the site of a lost city, or scenery at one time of

softest beauty, and anon of wildest grandeur;while over

and above all the ordinary interest of such a journey, the

frequent change of level and soil, now among low allu-

vial valleys, now among the bleak, bare peaks of snow-

covered hills, afforded admirable scope for the observations

of a naturalist who had set himself to determine the geo-

graphical distribution of the plants and animals of that

part of Asia Minor, and to attempt the elucidation of its

geological structure. Such was the task which Forbes

had proposed to accomplish. How he succeeded he has

shown in the second volume of his Travels in Lijcia.

Beyond the stray facts gleaned from the natives, he

could obtain little information relative to the wild ani-

mals and birds of Lycia. No opportunity, however, was

lost of searching for land and fresh-water mollusca.

These can easily be collected with tolerable completeness

during such a journey as that of our traveller through

Lycia, and, as he well knew, they form a much better

basis for arriving at correct ideas of the zoological dis-

tribution of a province than the few specimens of animals

of a higher grade 1 which he might chance to procure.

Of insects, he collected a considerable number, among

which were many forms of an alpine or sub-alpine char-

acter, distinguishing the general assemblage from that of

the Greek Isles, though as a whole it formed part of the

great Mediterranean province.

Notwithstanding that the season of the year was not

the most favourable for investigating the vegetation of

Asia Minor, Forbes’s botanical notes form the most com-

1 Travels in Lycia, xx. 71.


plete and valuable part of his sketch of the natural his-

tory features of that region. Grouping the results of

his tour with Mr. Hoskyn in early winter, and with

Messrs. Daniell and Spratt in spring and early summer,

he found that the vegetation naturally arranged itself

into four zones or regions, ranging in succession from the

maritime plains and valleys up the mountain slopes to

the great yailctlis or table-lands of the interior, and thence

to the higher peaks which rose from six to ten thousand

feet above the sea. The flora varied not only with the

height, but in a marked manner with the changes of

rock and soil, so much so that the geology of the country

could often be determined at almost any distance by the

strongly-defined characters of the vegetation.

The geological results of the Lycian tour possessed

considerable interest. They showed the extension into

that part of Asia Minor of the great fresh-water pliocene

series of the Mediterranean, below which occurred in a

few localities an older marine group of marls, while in

Cos another marine series of later date was found to rest

directly on the denuded edges of the fresh-water beds.

There were thus

—

1st, A miocene marine formation, spar-

ingly visible in Lycia, resting on the old scctglia or

Apennine limestone;

2d, A vast fresh-water group, of

older pliocene age, lying unconformably on the former

;

and, 3 d, A newer pliocene marine group, which reposed

unconformably against the second series, and in its im-

bedded fossils corresponded with the later tertiaries of

Rhodes and Sicily. But perhaps the most valuable

part of Forbes’s geological observations is contained in

his details of the tertiaries of Cos, and his well-known

u


account of the remarkable gradations in form there ex-

hibited by species of Paludina and Neritina, arising, as

he showed, from successive changes in the physical char-

acter of the area in which these forms lived. His obser-

vations upon the recent geological phenomena of the

coast of Lycia likewise deserve attention.

For three months the travellers had heard no tidings

from England. Leaving Mr. Daniell, therefore, to pur-

sue his antiquarian researches through other unexplored

tracts of Asia Minor (in which, alas ! he soon fell a victim

to the epidemics of the country), Messrs. Spratt and

Forbes embarked for Rhodes, where letters were waiting

their arrival. The vessel to which they committed them-

selves was a crazy Turkish caique, with an old Turk, a

stout Arab, and two little boys, by way of crew. After

a passage of three days, during which they narrowly

escaped shipwreck, they reached Rhodes, and found the

long-expected budget of home news.

The intelligence which Forbes received was partly of

an unfavourable, partly of a highly-encouraging kind.

His father had met with losses which rendered it impos-

sible for the son to receive any further remittances from

home. Yet as a counterpoise to these sad and dis-

heartening tidings, Forbes found opening up to him at

last the prospect of independence. Congratulations and

encouragements—the latter consisting not of words only,

but including a liberal pecuniary assistance—came from

the British Association, while some of his friends, espe-

cially his former fellow-student, Mr. Goodsir, were busy

canvassing with every prospect of success, for his appoint- .1

ment to the Chair of Botany in King’s College, London,

1842 .EDWARD FORBES. 307

then vacant by the death of Professor Don. He could

have wished the chair had been a natural history one,

for he felt diffident of his botanical acquirements, and

even alleged that nothing but the absolute necessity of

obtaining some remunerative employment would in-

duce him to accept a lectureship of botany. To Mr.

Thompson he wrote, that by dint of exertion he might

perhaps be able to give a fair average course of lectures,

“ and if I had that chair,” he adds, “ it would be a pretty

certain step to Jamesons afterwards. Therefore I hope

you and my other friends will back me. Settle in

London I must, and live by my wits. Tell me in your

next what is thought of my applying for the Kings

) College Chair.”

This diffidence was characteristic of the simple,

truth loving mind of Edward Forbes. In actual fact

1 he possessed a large amount of botanical knowledge, and

a capacity for original botanical research of no common

kind. And this became clear enough when he gave his

first course of lectures next summer. But he had not

devoted himself with the same ardour to botany as to

zoology;

and hence, in the former, still more than

in the latter, he felt himself far below his own high

standard of proficiency. Nevertheless, the chance was

one he could not allow to pass. The Natural History

Chair of Edinburgh he had long fixed on as the goal

of his ambition, and to this every move he made

bore especial reference. His previous exertions as a

lecturer we have already seen were unsuccessful, and

still more so his attempts to gain a professorship in

Scotland. But now the possibility of obtaining a Chair

308 MEMOIR OE CHAP. X,

in London seemed a more hopeful prospect than any

which had hitherto appeared. His friends at home were

many, zealous, and influential;he looked forward, there-

fore, with sanguine expectations to the next spring,

when he hoped to commence his career in London as a

professor in King’s College.

In the meantime, something still remained to be

done in the East. The council of the British Association

had voted him £60, which was subsequently increased

to £100, to be expended in comparing the fauna of the

Red Sea with that of the Mediterranean. He had been

anxious to visit the Red Sea, and had even resolved at

one time to make the attempt at his own expense. But

the cost of such a journey proved to be considerably

higher than he had anticipated, and he was compelled

to abandon the idea. The long-expected grant from the

Association, however, revived it. His dream of dredging

down the Red Sea seemed almost realized ;he would

start for Egypt, spend two months in the explorations,

and still be able to return to England by the middle of

winter.

Such were the plans with which, after a pleasant

week in Rhodes, he started with Lieutenant Spratt in a

little caique to rejoin the “Beacon.” But they were

doomed to be sadly frustrated.

On the second day of the voyage, Forbes was seized

with fever. Contrary winds drove the frail bark out of

its course, and lulls kept it still out at sea. For eight

miserable days he lay in the bottom of the boat, without

medical advice or comfort of any kind, beyond what

his fellow-traveller could improvise from the scanty


1

J

I

resources of a caique. It seemed well-nigli a hopeless

case;day after day rolled wearily away, and still no

progress could be made. The patient grew weaker as

the voyage lengthened, and his friend, in an agony of

suspense, watched in vain for a breeze. At last, on the

nmth day, came the breeze so ardently prayed for, and

the vessel gained the port of Syra, where, by good

chance, the “ Isabella'’ happened to be at the time.

After some delay, permission was obtained to put that

vessel in quarantine, and Forbes was removed on board.

Skilful medical treatment, and the kind attention of

his old friends, all down to the youngest sailor only too

anxious to please him, speedily restored the invalid to

health. He used to say, however, that had he remained

two days longer in the caique, he should never have left

it alive.

On the 26th June, while in quarantine, on board

the “ Isabella” at Syra, he wrote a long letter to his

father. He was then recovering, but the handwriting

is very shaky. Yet his zeal seems to have been in no

way impaired by the fever;

for, after stating his pro-

spects as to the Botany Chair, he goes on to speak of the

Association grant, and the necessity of his going to Egypt.

With a hand that appears to have been hardly able to

hold the pen, he writes, “ Of so great importance to myfuture welfare do I feel the undertaking of the task to

be, that I shall make every exertion to do it, and to

Egypt I must go. Two months will do the work.”

And all this is narrated to the length of two full pages,

before he goes on to tell, as a much less important

matter, that he is just recovering from a fever that had

31U MEMOIR OF CHAP. X.

well-nigh cost him his life. “ At present/’ he continues,

“ I am recovering rapidly, but it will take a month’s

quiet living on board the 'Beacon’ before I shall be

myself again.” But Edward Forbes never was himself

again. His constitution, though healthy, was not strong,

and at this time it received a shock from which it

never afterwards fully recovered.

The “ Isabella” sailed in a short time for Port

Naussa in Paros, where the “ Beacon” lay, and there,

among his warm-hearted friends, our naturalist speedily

rallied. The preparation of notes and specimens fur-

nished an easy and pleasant in-door employment in the

cabin of the “ Beacon,” and before many weeks had

slipt away, the convalescent was able to resume his

old occupation of dredging in the bays and botanizing

among the hills and valleys of Paros. Such were the

employments which occupied the months of July and

August;they imparted new life to his weakened body,

and inspired him with an earnest desire for the labour

and risk of another journey. The bright vision of a

dredging-boat on the Red Sea had now, however, again

grown somewhat dim, for a new calculation had only

served to heighten the expense. The grant of the Asso-

ciation would be insufficient even for the mere scientific

part of the expedition, and the state of his family affairs

forbade him to look for fresh assistance from home.

Greatly against his will, he found himself compelled to

contemplate the probability of his having to decline the

grant. It almost seemed as if the intermittent fever

which had lately attacked his physical frame, had now

somehow settled down upon his hopes and plans. They


I

underwent some change on the arrival of each mail,

even to the extent of an entire reconstruction, and for

some months this alternation, along with the uncertainty

and suspense as to his prospects in England, continued

to annoy and disconcert him. Though once more active

and energetic, his friends saw with anxiety that he was

far from having regained his former vigour. Captain

Graves in particular urged him to return to England;

a step, however, which Forbes was very loath to take,

until he knew more of the results of his application for

the Chair, and of the grants of the British Association.

When therefore, in the middle of August, news came

that the Association had increased its grant to £100,

and that his prospects as a candidate at King’s College

fi were highly satisfactory, he no longer hesitated as to

the Red Sea expedition, but availed himself of the

“ Beacon’s” trip to Smyrna about the beginning of Sep-

I tember, with the view of adding to his natural history

stores and observations in that part of the Archipelago,

and starting thence for Egypt. From Smyrna he writes

to Mr. Thompson (September 9th), “The £100 of the

Association determines me to take Egypt on my wayback, and I shall start for Alexandria soon, regulating

my movements so as to be in England in the early part

of January. ... At the present moment the cabin

table is covered with jars of salt-water, and dishes full

of the dissected members of a beautiful Rhizostoma.”

But again his plans were frustrated, and the African»' voyage finally abandoned.

While lying in the Gulf of Smyrna, he received a

letter from his active friend, Mr. Goodsir, ureino- his


immediate return, in order to secure his success at

King’s College, and through that the fulfilment of his

ultimate aims. The arguments employed were too

strong to he combated. Reluctantly abandoning whathad so long been a cherished prospect, Forbes preparedto return to England. The steamer “Iberia” was to

sail the first week of October, and the interval was em-ployed in packing up his specimens, all of which he

brought home with him. All the bottles, paper, andother materials that had not been used, he left on board

the “Beacon;” “as I can assure you,” he wrote to

Thompson, “there are active naturalists there now, on

whom we can depend in future. I retire from office

proud of having reared them, as I feel sure the introduc-

tion of the breed into the Navy will eventually be of

great service to our science.” Without writing to any

one in England, and after bidding adieu to his friends

in the “ Beacon,” he set sail, and arrived in the Thames

on the 28th of October.

Before entering upon the details of Edward Forbes’s

career in London, it may be well to review very briefly

his scientific progress during the period which has now

been described. This can the more fittingly be done,

since the close of his riEgean expedition marks also the

completion of a distinct portion of his life.

When he left Edinburgh for the East, he had spent

nine years more or less under the shade of his A him

Mat&r, with his master Jameson and many of his

earliest student companions still around him. The

Museum and the libraries were familiar haunts;every


valley and hillside of his neighbourhood had been botan-

ized;

every lake and stream had been searched for

mollusca. The Firth of Forth had been dredged from

end to end, as the stalwart fishermen of the coast could

readily testify;and other parts of our seas had been

searched, far away among the Shetlands and the

Hebrides, as well as over the Irish Sea, and round the

wild Atlantic bays that indent the western shores of

Ireland and Scotland. As the result of all this home

research, and of the explorations which, from Edinburgh

as a centre, had extended into many foreign lands,

there had gradually been dawning upon him certain

philosophical views, which were afterwards worked out

and embodied in his best known memoirs. As yet,

indeed, they existed only in the bud, but they needed

nothing more than the fostering influence of a larger

s experience to expand them into all the fulness of leaf

i and flower.

Edward Forbes was essentially a biologist. Even in

his earliest years, when his mind hovered bee-like over

the wide domain of nature, he estimated with rare

sagacity the limit of his range. Into the territory of

physics he never trespassed, save now and then as an

amateur in search of the beautiful, either in physical

law or in organic form and colour. At College Ins un-

restrained and diffuse explorations had to be methodized,

and his tastes, equally botanical and zoological, taught

to exert themselves in special channels. The great in-

fluence of Jameson, indeed, could not fail to inspire his

more enthusiastic pupils with a love for minerals and a

respect for mineralogical geology. Forbes soon became


passionately fond of mineralogy,

1 but lie never studied

it for himself, either chemically or mathematically, and

so soon as he removed from the influence of his master,

the love for minerals waned. But the training he had

received, proved of essential service in his after life, by

imparting a regard for lithological evidence in geological

research, and an ability to use it only too rare among

palaeontologists. He became eventually a geologist of a

high order, but it was through the biological, and not

the physical gateway that he approached geology.

During his medical career, though careless in his

attendance on the purely medical classes, he was assidu-

ous in his devotion to those of natural history and

botany. As the preceding pages have shown, he verified

the subjects of the lectures by personal observations,

—

collecting radiata, mollusca, and insects (some of which

he carefully dissected), and botanizing for many miles

around Edinburgh. When the College sessions ended,

and he was left to the guidance of his own inclinations,

we can clearly see, from the mode in which he spent his

holidays, what were to him the most attractive fields in

nature. His earlier rambles, beginning with that to

Norway when he was eighteen years of age, were in the

main botanical. From the first they had reference,

however, not to the structural or physiological characters,

but to the geographical distribution of plants. This,

indeed, continued through life to be his chief point of

connexion with botany, though afterwards it became

greatly widened by being linked with the consideration

1 The passion was revived in after life, found himself once more amid that rich

when he returned to Edinburgh, to take mineralogical collection which had so

the place of his master Jameson, and attracted him in his youth.


of geological changes. In his student clays he knew

comparatively little of organic geology, and certainly

never practically applied his knowledge of living forms

to the elucidation either of extinct organisms or of former

physical conditions. He rambled abroad to collect

plants for his herbarium, and to mark how they are

associated in nature, and what reference the changes in

their mode of grouping bear to those of the grouping of

invertebrate animals.

It was not until his first visit to the Jardin des

Plantes, in the year 1835, that the geography of plants

began to give way to the geography of animals. He

seems to have left the Parisian museums deeply im-

pressed with the value and the necessity of wide and

accurate research into the distribution of the mollusca.

This is evidenced not only by his copious notes from

Ferussac, Drapernaucl, De Blainville, etc., but more

directly still by the fact, that in leaving Paris for Swit-

zerland, and travelling among the Alps, he devoted

especial attention, not so much to the botanical zones, as

to the range in altitude of the pulmoniferous mollusca.

From this time, botany occupied a gradually decreas-

ing share of his attention, and though the new fields of

observation which were presented to him, first in Styria

and Carniola, and afterwards among the islands of the

AEgean, called forth, as we have seen, all his old zeal for

flowers, it was only for a time. The scientific memoirs

and papers of his later life bearing on botanical subjects,

though eminently original, resulted not from fresh re-

searches in botany, but rather from the introduction of

well-known botanical facts into geological speculations.

31G MEMOIR OF ClIAP. X.

or of a geological element into the elucidation of botani-

cal problems.

His devotion to the study of mollusca increased

yearly, from the time of his first visit to Paris. Whenhe returned to the museums there, for a more lengthened

sojourn, in 1836, he acquired fresh knowledge and aug-

mented zeal in the study.

In Algiers, it was the land and fresh-water mollusca

that attracted him, and when he returned to his owncountry he began immediately to set about the prepara-

tion of a list of the Manx mollusca, which resulted in

his Malacologia Monensis. Next year he read before

the British Association a paper on the distribution of

terrestrial pulmoniferous mollusca in Europe, and this

gave rise to his Beport on the Pulmonifera of Britain.

In all these researches, it will be observed, that while

he by no means neglected the preparatory study of the

structure of the mollusca, it was their distribution in

space that more especially interested him. He loved to

trace the gradations of molluscan life, from the sea-

margin down into the depths, and to mark how it was

likewise grouped upon the land into distinct provinces

from the sea-margin to the mountain-tops. His bathy-

metrical researches in the Aegean first placed this sub-

ject in a clear light. They bore practically, too, upon

geological speculation, and formed his earliest important

contribution in aid of the progress of geology.

During his student years, however, he devoted him-

self enthusiastically to careful and original researches in

systematic zoology. It was almost wholly in the inver-

tebrate division that his labours were conducted, and of


that division chiefly among the radiata and the mollusca.

His papers on the medusas and the star-fishes, as well as

several contributions to malacology, show that he pos-

sessed powers of discrimination, and of the perception

of analogies, such as placed him in no mean rank among

scientific observers. His researches among the British

Asteriadae, particularly deserve remark. His classifica-

tion was a great advance on that branch of zoology, rais-

ing the Sipuncididce into the ranks of the Radiata, and

placing the Ophiuridce, to use his own words, “ as a

group equivalent to the star-fishes.” His papers, in con-

junction with Professor Goodsir, also contributed largely

to lay the basis of his future fame as an accurate and

philosophical observer.

Of the zoological work accomplished by Edward

Forbes, during his residence in the East, as we shall see

in the subsequent chapters, only a small portion was pub-

lished, and the greater part has thus been lost to science.

The results that bore upon the distribution of animals,

and tended to link zoology and geology in a closer

union, were alone embodied in his Report on the Mollusca

and Radiata of the iEgean Sea, presented to the British

Association .

1

It was during his life in Edinburgh, and his sojourn

in the East, that he accomplished most of his purely

zoological work. The memoirs in this branch of science

written by him in after years, sprang, to a large extent,

from these early researches. Hence in viewing Forbes

as a zoologist, we must in justice to him remember that

his zoological career was almost wholly confined to the

1 See Ante, p. 299.


period preceding liis twenty seventh year. The course

of his after-life was thrown into other channels, and only

fitfully, and almost as a kind of by-thing, could he find

suits that occupied so large a portion of his time at Edin-

burgh and in the Levant. He availed himself partly of

his own early work, partly of that of his friends and con-

temporaries, to form the basis of broad generalizations or

of striking and eminently beautiful hypotheses.

There is another field of inquiry in which Edward

Forbes during his student life loved to indulge, and

in which some of his favourite speculations were con-

ducted. He himself called it Psycho-Zoology. Unfor-

tunately there exists no other record of his early views on

this subject, than that contained in the syllabus to his

course of lectures in conjunction with Dr. Samuel Brown.

Part of this syllabus, in which we can detect the germ of

some of the views which he subsequently elaborated, may

be appropriately quoted here.

animal kingdom.—Preparation of the world for the reception of living

beings—Relation of organic and inorganic matter

—

Life not the result

but the cause of organization, the term life an expression of the presence

of the animating spirit—Distinctions of animal and vegetable life

—

Threefold constitution of the animal organism— Substance, Form, and

Intellect.

Development of Form.—Doctrine of the progression of forms

—

Relations of form to substance and intellect—Progressive complication

of organization—Distinctions between the analogies and affinities of ani-

mal forms—Regularity and irregularity—Parity and imparity—Polarity

—Metamorphosis—Number considered as an element of form.

Development of intellect—Doctrine of the progression of intellect

time for those zoological and purely natural history pur-

“ PSYCHO-ZOOLOGY.

The study of life and intellect as illustrated by the study of the


—The animating principle—The passive animal intellect—The active

animal intellect or understanding—The combination of both in man

with the angelic intellect or reason—Instinct and sagacity considered

and referred to the understanding—The intellectual powers of animals

briefly considered parallel between the development of Form and Struc-

ture and that of Intellect.

Views of Naturalists, Metaphysicians, and Physiologists on Psycho-

Zoology—Metaphysical Natural History systems—Comparison of linear,

dichotomous, circular, and irregular systems.

Man considered as an animal—The races of men—Correspondence

of physical and intellectual characters in men—Relations of the mind

to the structure and functions of the body—Geographical distribution

of man compared with that of other animals—Influences of natural his-

tory causes on that distribution, and on the social conditions of man

—

Influence of the structure, fauna, and flora, of a country on the opinions

and habits of men, and on the formation of character national and indi-

vidual—Application of such considerations to moral and political science

—Influence of the study of natural history on man’s mind, in Science,

in Literature, and in Art.

Prospective view of the benefits to be derived from the study of

Psycho-Zoology—Moral of Natural History—Humility and Faith.

Amid the patient gathering of facts relative to the

distribution of plants and animals, Edward Forbes found

in geology the bond that was to link these facts together

into a symmetrical whole, and in carrying out this line

of research, he probably did greater service to geology

than to any other branch of the natural sciences.

It was from the biological side, therefore, that Forbes

entered the geological ranks. In his explorations of his

native island, he had been struck by the arrangement of

shells in a raised beach, and in dredging the neighbouring

sea he found a shell-bank, which if elevated above the

sea-level, would present, he could not doubt, an appear-

ance exactly like that of the raised beach.

320 MEMOIR OE CIIAP. X.

He soon perceived that the thorough investigation

of the mutual relations of zoology and geology would

yield a rich harvest of results. He viewed these relations

as twofold, 1st, Geo-Zoology (or Paleontology), which

dealt with the zoological characters and relations of fossil

animals, and 2d, Zoo-Geology, which embraced the study

of animal conditions, and of the associations of living ani-

mal species as illustrating those of extinct forms and the

geological strata containing them. Among the influences

affecting the distribution of animals and plants, he re-

garded as of primary importance, climate and geological

structure, the secondary influences being the physical

features of the country, its wood and water, and the

agency of man. But though he admitted oscillations of

level to be a cause of the modifications of the organic

productions of the sea-bottom, he had not yet perceived

how closely geological changes of climate, and of the re-

lative level of sea and land, could be connected with the

present distribution of a fauna and flora. There were

fallacies in the reasonings both of zoologists and geolo-

gists, and these, he said, could only be eradicated by

combining their common studies, in other words, by the

study of Zoo-Geology.

It was through zoology that Edward Forbes became a

geologist, and amid the engrossments of his London fife

it was in the main through some of the many geological

avenues that he returned to zoology. And in thus passing

and repassing between these sciences, he opened up many

pathways through the intervening debateable land of

palaeontology, clearing away the entanglements that had

hedged up the biological sciences on the one side, from


the non-biological on the other, and making the com-

munication between the two regions surer and easier and

pleasanter than it had ever been before. This was the

great work of his life during the period on the details of

which we are now about to enter.

x

CHAPTER XI.

LIFE IN LONDON, AS CURATOR OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY,

AND PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN KING’S COLLEGE.

The close of Edward Forbes’s sojourn among the

Grecian seas was also the close of his life of unfettered

liberty. Hitherto the liberality of his father had freed

him from the need of working that he might live, and

he had therefore striven to live, that he might work.

Free to choose his pursuit, and free to follow it as he

chose, or leave it when he liked, the liberty of youth

had, in his case, run further into manhood than it does

with most men. And though he had felt the necessity

of obtaining some remunerative employment, and as we

have seen had laboured most anxiously to that end, it

was rather because he longed to be independent than

because he feared to be in want. But more than this,

whether he succeeded or no, he had never suffered anxiety

about his home circle, and the consciousness that his ill

success could not involve any of the loved ones in the

island, had made him light-hearted when everything

seemed to be going against him in Edinburgh. But

matters had sadly changed during the nineteen months

of his absence. His father, hitherto prosperous as a

trader and banker, had lost everything, and Edward now

1842 .MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. 323

found himself charged with responsibilities and duties

I

which he had little dreamed of only a few weeks before.

To solicitude for his own livelihood was now added

anxiety for the lot of those who had the greatest claim

on his love and labour.

It was only when he reached this country, and

actually saw the state of Iris family affairs that the truth

stood out in its full proportions. But no sooner did

he perceive the urgent necessity for exertion than he

plunged into the vortex of London life, with a vigour

and a self-denial beyond all praise. For ten long years

from this period, he remained the servant of others, doing

mill-horse drudgery at one time, groaning under the

endless trammels of Government routine at another, and

only able at intervals to take up, as a secondary matter,

the original natural history work which he so loved, and

which he knew so well to be his own proper field of

labour.

The “Iberia” arrived in the Thames on the 28th of

October 1842. The quarantine arrangements detained

her for several days at Stangate creek, and during this

vexatious delay Forbes wrote to his friend and publisher,

Mr. Van Voorst, to know what had been the result of the

application for the chair in London. The return of the

post brought the intelligence that he was now Professor

of Botany in King’s College. Writing to Mr. Thompson,

immediately after the receipt of this news, he says, “ I

have this morniug received the very satisfactory answer

that I have been elected at King’s College. This is very

gratifying to me, as I was uneasy lest I had lost all

chance of it by my absence. Regarding arrangements

324 MEMOIR OF CHAP. XI.

about lectures, etc., I as yet know nothing, but suppose

I shall not lie called upon till spring, and have plenty

to do in the meantime. . . . Much of my plans must,

however, depend on what I find my financial prospects

are, when I inquire in town and hear from my father.”

When at last he reached London, he found his financial

prospects gloomy enough,—less than £100 a year from

the professorship, and no help from home. To eke out

the sum to an amount sufficient for his support in Lon-

don, it would be needful to embark in a series of literary

enterprises, furnish reviews and articles for the periodi-

cals, and engage in any hack-work that could be got.

True, this would make sad inroads on the time which

should be given to the arrangement of the vast mass of

natural history material collected in the East. But stern

necessity would admit of no compromise.

It was while revolving such plans, and cataloguing

the botanical museum of the college, preparatory to his

lectures, that an event occurred which contributed mate-

rially to alter the tenor of Ins life. The collections of

the Geological Society of London were superintended by

a Curator appointed by the Society at the salary of £150

a year. The duties of this office, besides the guardianship

of the museum, included also the editing of the Society’s

Transactions, the curator being the chief scientific con-

sulting head of the Society’s establishment at Somerset

House. The appointment had just become vacant by

the resignation of the veteran geologist, Mr. Lonsdale.

An angry dispute had arisen in the Society as to the

claims of the new candidates, a dispute so serious, indeed,

that some of the foremost leaders had intimated their


IA

ti

intention of quitting the Society if a certain one of the

candidates was elected. In these circumstances they

went to young Forbes, begged him to stand, and as-

sured him of success. Under other circumstances, he

would at once have declined the offer, for he knew the

sacrifice of time it would require. But the salary de-

cided the matter, and under the auspices of Murchison,

Lyell, Fitton, Taylor, and other leading Fellows of the

Society, he agreed to become a candidate. His doing so

he “ believed was a God-send to the Society, as it in a

great measure relieved both parties of their difficulties.”

Beferring to these proceedings, he remarks in a letter to

Captain Graves, “ I took no part myself, neither canvass-

ing nor asking anybody to support me, and when I was

asked to send in testimonials as all the other candidates

had done, I refused at once, as I considered that mode

of doing tilings all humbug.” He thus balances the ad-

vantages and disadvantages of the post in a letter to Mr.

Thompson, headed, “19 a, Golden Square, London,” but

without any date. “ The advantages are these, in theJirst

place, A salary which, under my present circumstances, is

an object to me;

2d, A good library at my disposal;

3 d, An opportunity of studying thoroughly the fossil

invertebrata;and, 4th, A personal communication daily

with the leaders of science in London, and a reputation

in the most popular, most influential, and most numerousbody of admirers of science in England.

“ On the other hand, I shall be tied down to daily

attendance in the Society’s rooms for eleven months in

the year, have the greater part of my time taken upwith the business of the Society, and have little or no

326 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XI.

time to work up the immense mass of materials which I

have at hand, and which nobody can use till I have put

them in order. If I could afford to do without it, I

would not take the office;but as my professorship will

not bring in £100 a year, and as I have no other

resources to depend upon at present, I must take what I

can get, and give up working at science for the mere sake

of science, for, between the mechanical work of prepar-

ing my lectures, and the work of the Geological Society,

I can see no time for other things, unless a few hours

snatched to fulfil my engagement in writing the ‘Rambles.’

The prospect is therefore a dreary one, but must be put

up with. Everybody here is very kind and attentive, and

all urge me to bring out the results of my late travels

;

—all fine talking, but of no use, until Fortune’s wheel

takes a turn more in favour of science than it ever did

yet in our free country. Accordingly, for the present

no Aegean Nat. Hist, or Prodromus is in the oven,

since there is no oven to put them in. I shall remain

in town till the Geological election is over. If I get the

place, I shall go to Edinburgh for a week, and pack up

there;

if not, I shall go there for the winter. In the

meantime, I shall be fully occupied making a list of the

botanical preparations in the King’s College museum, in

order to see what I shall want additional for my lecture.

It is too bad : nobody will write a notice of the ‘ Star-

fishes ’ in the Annals. ’Tis not I care about it, but on

Van Voorst’s account I wish it. Is a book to be passed

over because it is a good book ? Do you or Patterson

give him a lift. He laid out much money on that book,

and I fear it will not repay him for a very long time.


No publisher will publish invertebrata if his books are to

be passed without comment, because the subject is not

generally understood. ... I have become a petitioner

at the Linnean. I begrudge the expense, but as King’s

Cohege professor I must do so, or it would do me harm.

The other day Kobert Brown told me he approved of

my election, and that if I came to see him, he would

give me advice. I take this from his majesty as a com-

pliment.” Again, in another letter to the same friend,

written on the day previous to the decision of the geo-

logical curatorship, when his chances of success were

tolerably secure :— “ Having the office will enable me to

live in London. £150 is the salary (no doubt small

enough for the work), but if they get richer they will

probably increase it. My chair may be counted as £100

certain (I am £60 in hand as it is), and I hope to make

it worth more, as King’s College is going ahead fast.

£50 more by odds and ends will make £300, which will

enable me to have good rooms in town, live comfortably,

and make an annual excursion to the Association, and

among my friends. If they build a new hospital for

King’s College (and they talk of doing so), the whole

may turn out even better than the Edinburgh Chair, as

students are very few there at present; chairs worth

£800 a year seven years ago, now not producing £300.

On Saturday I go to Edinburgh for ten days, when (if

installed) I must be back to take office.”

His visit to Edinburgh, though short, was full of

pleasure, both to himself and to his wide circle of friends

there. Dr. Bennett, in referring to it, writes :“ We

shall not easily forget the pleasure we then experienced

328 MEMOIR OE C1IAP. XL

in looking over the rich portfolio of drawings he brought

with him. Water-colour drawings, sketches in pencil

and chalk of eastern landscapes, marine views, temples

and ruins, groups of Turks and Greeks, picturesque

costumes, comic incidents, mingled with sketches of

plants, shells, fishes, and other objects of natural history,

—the whole forming a characteristic medley, indicative

of the character of his observations and skilful method

of treating them.”

The main object of his visit to the northern metro-

polis was, of course, to arrange the removal of the books,

specimens, and other household gods which had been for

years accumulating in his “ happy den,” as he called it,

at the top of the stairs in 21, Lothian Street, and which,

when starting for the East, he had allowed to remain in

Edinburgh. During his stay in the north, his election

in London was confirmed. “ I believe,” so he wrote at

the time to Mr. Patterson, “ the geological matter is

settled in my favour. When I glance over the heaps of

work I have to do, I almost wish I was disappointed

;

but needs must.”

Another object in visiting Edinburgh, was to arrange

with Mr. Goodsir regarding the anatomical dissections

of some of the Mediterranean stores. To Captain Graves

he writes, 1st January 1843, “I have made preparations

for commencing ‘ Illustrations of the Zoology of the

ZEgean Sea/ according to our plan. The Goodsirs are

making splendid dissections of the animals. When I

have the drawings, etc., of a part prepared, I shall

then see if [Captain] Beaufort can get assistance [from

Government] for its publication.”


About the end of December he returned to London,

and entered on the duties of Curator of the Geological

Society to which he had been triumphantly elected.

His previous sojourns in the metropolis had been short,

and occupied chiefly in visiting his friends, or ranging

through the treasures of the museums. On the one

recorded occasion (ante, p. 259), when he went to town

y with the avowed intention of working, his signal failure

in the attempt called forth, as we have seen, the merry

taunts of his Belfast friends, though he consoled himself

with the reflection, that if he were fixed there in lodg-

ings, he certainly would work. Nevertheless, he was

fully aware that, to a naturalist of his temperament,

London could never be a fitting place for study. Only

the necessity of making science yield him a livelihood,

and the consciousness that nowhere could he better seek

o for this than in London, had induced him to settle there.

It was with the full persuasion, therefore, that he must

expect rather to do the work of others than his own,

and to find only short and fitful intervals for the pro-

secution of original research, that he returned to London

as a permanent residence.

But even his gloomiest prognostications fell far short

of the reality. The constant hurry and bustle of the

first week after Ins installation was, of course, regarded as

the recognised ordeal through which every public servant

must pass, until his experience becomes enlarged, and the

curiosity of the public has somewhat abated. But the

lapse of weeks brought no diminution in the demandsupon his time and labour

;nay, the more he toiled after

leisure, it seemed to fly the farther away. Tins is


brought out with a melancholy graphicness in his letters to

Mr. Thompson. Under date January 6, 1843, he writes

:

—“ Dear Thompson,—Pardon me for my negli-

gence, but one of the greatest evils of my present

position is the run it makes upon almost all my time.

I have now put oil answering your note two days, in

hopes of getting to the British Museum about the hare,1

but in comes one ‘ big-wig/ and then another, and then

some F. G. s. would ask ‘ a little question about a few

fossils/ and then the A thenceum is waiting for the

abstracts, etc. etc. etc., so that my horns from eleven to

four are ran away with entirely, and, before I can get

out of Somerset House, the other museums are shut up.

You are aware the Zoological Society’s collection is

boxed up and unconsumable in an old warehouse. Will

next week do % The first spare hour I will run up to

the Museum (if possible on Monday), about that are !

“ About your book on Irish vertebrata, etc., publish

by all means, and at full length. I differ altogether

from Patterson about the length. My rule is, short

in the Annals,and long in the volume. The shorter a

paper is the better, and the fuller a book. I have not

had time yet to read your latter papers on birds, but

will by and by, and tell you what I think. Draw up

the Report for the British Association by all means. It

need not be so special as that on the vertebrata. A

general view is what is wanted. I expect to be at

Cork, God willing, and will do all I can to help you.’

Again :

—

“ Dear Thompson,—Time ! time ! time ! no time

1 Mr. Thompson was at this time in* with the Lepus variabilis, or alpine hare

vestigating the identity of the Irish hare of Scotland.


now, I fear, for anything ! You say I’m lucky, but you

are far luckier yourself in being able to work at what

you like, and at your own work. I have put off day

after day answering your letter, and now the end of the

week comes, and it must be put off till next week. I

have not been able to get to the Museum, even to deliver

a letter from Johnston to Baird yet, which I have had

in hand two weeks. I don’t know how the Mediterranean

work is to be got over, and, as to my lectures, I have

not had time to touch them yet. I wish to God some-

body would leave me £300 a year, and then I would

keep my professorship and work out my work;but, as

it is, I see no prospect.”

A few days later he writes again :—

“ Geol. Soc., Monday, Feb. 6, 1843.

“ Dear Thompson,—You mistake me, if you fancy

I find fault with my work and amount of occupation;

what annoys me is that, under such circumstances, all

the original matter I have collected must lie dormant.

The honour of Britain is concerned in the matter (is

not that a fine idea);

for, in the meantime, whilst I ammaking abstracts, and writing catalogues, etc., some

rascally Frenchman will sift the Mediterranean, and

claim the glory for his own country. You so far off can

scarcely form an idea of the mass of material I have

collected when with Graves. One point, however, must

be done;that is, the general Report on the Mollusca and

Radiata for the British Association. I wish you were

here to lend me a hand, for then we might sift out the

zoophytes, sticking both our names after the new species

(which, I expect, will be not a few), and thus get over

332 MEMOIR OF CHAR XI.

work in double quick time. You really must come upand work

;I promise you lots to do

;and then you can

look at the hare yourself. I am ashamed to say that

I have not been at the Museum yet, but the fact is, it

won’t do to leave this between eleven and four (myhours), as the Council people drop in continually. I

did intend to return you Rossmassler 1 at once, but have

changed my mind, unless you are in a hurry for it;

for,

in case you come up soon, I will keep the land and

fresh-water species of mollusca for joint description also.

Without co-operation I can do nothing as things go.

Searles Wood itches after the zoophytes, and RymerJones also

;but it won’t do. You must come and do

this with me as prior claimant. I am surprised at and

regret much what you say of . I suppose some

evil wind of bad fortune has blown him from his

business. Far better, however, do anything than turn

man of letters in London. The last of the chairs went

to Webster, and at best they are worth but little. I

fear I over-estimated the value of mine when I said

£100 a year. The Scotch chairs are better, but there is

none for which he has a chance. I wish I was well

enough off to share my places with him. But literature

and science are at a pecuniary discount in England.

There are crowds of men of letters on the town in

London, just not starving and no more. It is a very

bad look-out at best. Unless a man can take the top

of the tree he is wasting his time and health in climbing.

All the fruit grows at the top;

there is nothing but

spines on the trunk and lower branches. Could not

i Rossmassler’s Diagnosis Conchyliorum terrestrium et Jluviatilium

.


}with his mercantile knowledge, get a situation in

some good firm here, and then his leisure hours might

help, when given to his pen;

otherwise, at his age,

he is about to run a sad risk. If I hear of anything

that will suit or help, I will write you, and, at any rate,

n will look sharply out, but fear much.

“ I am surprised at what you say about,he cer-

tainly seemed rather a rough diamond, but at the same

time straightforward and open. May it not have been only

a pen roughness which dictated his note to you % By

the bye, Taylor has been at me every other day for the

last two months, to let him put my name among the

myriad editors of the Annals. I have not given in

yet, and have objections, but one argument in favour

will I fear overturn them, viz., living here is so much

more expensive than living in Edinburgh, that I must

save all I can in the way of buying books, and joining

i him will get me the Annals for nothing, and a share of

the books sent to them. All I should have to do is what

I do now, be a reference for papers sent in.”

Two days afterwards, in a letter to the same friend,

he again refers to this project of inserting his name as

one of the editors, and to Thompson s zoological papers

sent in for publication in the journal. “ As to the papers

in the Annals”he says, “ I think they are, if anything, too

full for a monthly journal. They are just the right thing

for chapters in a book, but a journal is only taken up for

consultation, and the consulter requires his results in as

brief and compressed a form as possible. For my part

(but I do not mean to set my opinions up against every-

body else’s), I object to popular papers in a journal, un-


less they be pure generalizations. I like to see all results

tabulated or summed up in such a way that I can seethe whole at a glance, almost without reading, descrip-

tions of structure of course excepted.“ Your review of the ‘ Star-fishes’ makes my modesty

shiink fiom appearing in the title-page of the Annals till

next volume, but in the meantime I hope I am exercising

some salutary control, to Taylor’s great apparent comfort.“ Yesterday the Geological Society’s dinner came off.

Lots of butter, of which I got a share, and as wasthe plasterer, it of course fell thick. I know the value of

all such too well. ... A short summary of the geological

and zoo-geological results of the iEgean expedition rather

astonished the audience, who had no very distinct idea

before how much had been done. Warburton is our newpresident. He is rather austere, but just, and I rather

want a strict man at present to keep my ribs in order.

“You talk of the Fine Arts. I came out the other

day as artist, my sketches being exhibited at the * Gra-

phic’ with considerable success. You have no idea from

my old attempts what a landscape painter Daniell made

me. I rather dread local societies for the encouragement

of art, and trust you will exercise no indulgence in your

position as patron at Belfast. An artist is not worth en-

couraging professionally unless he exhibits high powers

of both hand and mind, otherwise he is only another

sacrifice at the shrine of poverty and discontent. Be-

ware !—Ever most truly yours, Edward Forbes.” 1

1 Tlie Triangle of the Brotherhood of

the Friends of Truth, still, and for some

years afterwards, when writing to any

oineromathic correspondent, formed an

indispensable part of his signature, some-

times, however, so hurriedly dashed off,

that none but the initiated could detect

its form, lurking in the curving lines

wherein he enveloped some of the letters

of his name.

EDWARD FORBES. 3351 1843 .

The little leisure which he could snatch during the

early part of spring, was sedulously devoted to the pre-

paration of his lectures, and occasionally to the dashing

„

% ' ' '

The above sketch was drawn at a Council Meeting of the Geological Society.

Forbes, as usual, was busy drawing gnomes, nymphs, and caricatures, when a dis-

cussion arose on a proposition by Dr. Mantell, that the bones of the Dicynodon, in

the Society’s collection, should be properly cleaned and dressed. Stopping in the

middle of a sketch, Forbes instantly drew on another part of the page the above

representation of the Dicynodon, as his conception of how the creature would look

when "properly cleaned and dressed.”


off of a squib for the Literary Gazette, or of a vignette or

for my lectures in summer. I mean presently to makeapplication to you for contributions to our herbarium at

King’s College. I have presented all my collections, both

botanical and zoological, and am anxious to get all I can

for them. A set of duplicates of European grasses, or of

ferns, if you have any to spare, would be very acceptable

at present. Send me anything. I have no scruple in

begging, as it is in a public cause.

“ The first page of my ‘ Rambles ’ is in the press,

you, my ideas would flow better. S is here, and is,

I think, improved since I last saw him. He is the same

of both merriment and melancholy.”

But the claims of the curatorship were not the only

source of hindrance to the preparation of his lectures,

and the arrangement of the Eastern materials. In the

short space of one month, he suffered from two sharp,

though happily short returns of his Lycian fever and

ague, which incapacitated him for work, and left him

much weakened in body. On March 5th, he thus writes

to Mr. Thompson : “I am now better of my late return of

fever, which pulled me down a little, and I hope in my

new residence to enjoy better health. Since I came here

page of gossip for his long-advertised, but never com-pleted “ Rambles of a Naturalist.” On the 11th of Feb-

ruary he wrote of these employments to Dr. Percy :— “ I

have sadly little time for anything else except preparing

and the wood-cuts in progress. I wish I could etch like

fellow, now sad, now gay, by turns, but I need say

nothing on that point, for I have my own alternations

1S43. EDWARD FORBES.

Square, in very comfortable lodgings, which I could

recommend to you in case you want any when you come

here. Want of room for my books, etc., however, made

I

me unsettled, so I have changed my plan of living, and

have taken up my quarters with a friend, Dr. Day,

1a

young Cambridge physician, and formerly a fellow-

student with me in Edinburgh, of very great talent, and

a good fellow. He has married a young lady, whom I

knew in the Isle of Man, and has taken a house in

Southwick Street, Hyde Park (far end of Oxford Street),

where I put up yesterday, agreeing to live with him.

This will both be pleasanter, and more conducive to mystudies. Day’s books and mine together will make a

pretty good library for home use. It will also be more

economical, which is an object, as living in London is

a different thing to living in Edinburgh;

and being

a Professor costs more than being a student. FromDay’s, I shall have a pleasant walk here across the

parks every morning, which will do me good in fine

weather. . . .

“ How long I shall require your aid, one can’t well

i Now Professor of Anatomy, etc., in the University of St. Andrews.

Y


say till we begin to work. Suit your own time as to

coming, but do let us get a sight of you before the Asso-

ciation meets. May will do well.

“ throws his drawing-room open, with micro-

scopes, ‘ big- wigs/ wise men and fools tastefully inter-

spersed, and gives them ices, sweets, and sherry before

they go home.

“ If you ever see the Literary Gazette,Jerdan printed

a squib of mine in the last number/’

Ten days afterwards, in view of the meeting of the

British Association at Cork, he writes again to the same

constant correspondent :

—

“ Geological Society, Lokdon, March 14,1843 .

“Dear Thompson,—In order that I may not mislay

your note, or forget your queries before answering them,

I sit down, the moment after reading your note, to write

in reply.

“ My arrangements about the Association and Dublin

are not yet made, nor can they be for some time. In

London I must be till the end of July, on account of

my lectures, and I suspect I must go to Cork straight

in order to gain time for the preparation of my Report,

To Dublin I shall certainly go, either before or after, and

thence to the Isle of Man, to see my relations. But as

yet, this cannot be fixed for certain. Nothing is certain

with me except that I must lecture here in summer,

though when or how I am to get ready my lectures

seems the more puzzling the nearer the time comes, as

the work at the Geological increases every day, and

other things I must do to make ends meet. The fact is,


I have a great deal too much on hand without theO

power of reducing it. When I am in Dublin, I shall

d

certainly make it my object to examine critically the

collections of shells there. I want your assistance in my

hEgean collections, not so much for eye-work as for

critical work, in regard to species, whether described, and

where, etc. I am so stuck down in my geological room

that I cannot get five minutes a week for consulting

books elsewhere, or looking over collections, except at

night when all the public ones are closed.

“ I have catalogues of the British marine molluscs

up to the time I left England, but where they are I

know not, and I have no time to look for them at

present. If I had spare time, I would make one

according to my idea of what it should be, and print it

somewhere.

“ You did injustice in a former letter, in revil-

ing him for spending his life in jokes. He wastes his

talents in a different way—doing all the business (no

little work) for the Zoological Society. He should leave

that for ordinary men. Henry Goodsir has just written

me saying he has succeeded in watching the develop-

ment of Balanus, from egg upwards, more completely

than has yet been done, and that, at a particular stage,

its larva is identical with that of ordinary crustaceans.

This complete observation must settle all question as to

the positions of the Cirrhipedes.”

To his much-loved friend, George Wilson, he occa-

sionally found time to write a hurried letter, generally

craving news from Edinburgh, and especially about the

Brethren, rather than giving information regarding his

MEMOIR OF CHAP. XI.

own doings. At this time Dr. Samuel Brown was at

war with the chemists on the subject of his transmuta-

tion experiments, and Forbes, who loved him as a

thoroughly congenial spirit, battled stoutly for him

among scientific circles in London. In his letters to

George Wilson, our naturalist frequently referred, in

most energetic language, to his sympathy with Brown.

Thus, with a prelude of three interlacing triangles,

as symbolical of the Brotherhood, he writes :—

“ 3, Southwick Street, Hyde Park, April 6, 1843.

“ My dear Frater,—I take much blame to my-

self for not having written to you for so long a time,

but plead guilty to having put it off from day to day.

The continual hurry in which all my movements are

involved here is singularly unfavourable to epistoliz

ing, but the great craving I have for another letter from

you has obliged me, in spite of all the stones in the

Geological Society, to sit down and scribble. By this

time I hope your health and spirits are in a better

way than when I saw you in Edinburgh;

ere long,

doubtless, you will be able again to lecture and exercise

a class.

“ Many thanks for your long and most interesting

letter on the subject of Sam Brown’s discoveries,—all

success attend them ! The sooner he brings them out

the better. I am the only believer here, but of course I

have not whispered the process you communicated to

any one. Day and I talk over it by ourselves. Tom

is here, much improved by his travels. I had a

note from Lowe proposing him as a frater ; that must be


left to you brethren in Edinburgh. Many Edinburgh

men are excellent fellows out of Edinburgh, but sad

masses of prejudice when at home. It must be seen

how Tom will be when once more under his paternal

roof. Yesterday I met Giglioli in the street. We took

a walk together, and had a long chat. I hope to see

more of him. He looks well as ever.

“John Goodsir won’t write. Do stir him up to put

pen on paper. He is as bad a correspondent as myself.

What has been done about Dobbie’s1 business ? and give

me all other news about the brethren. I am over head

and ears in work, as my lectures come on in a month,

and I am rather behind in preparation, but must make

the best of it.”

“Nov. 15, 1843.

“ I introduce the subject [of Dr. Brown’s contro-

versy] everywhere by the following process :

—

Men who

are chemically inclined talk to me of the relations of

chemistry and natural history;

I reply by asking them

for chemical light on the following question

“ How do you account for certain so-called simple

bodies being found only in the oldest formations, and

others in only the newest or newer ? That which is

present in a stratum must be either there by an act of

creation, or be derived from some previously existing

body;but if that which is present be not identical with

any previously existing body, or a combination of any

two or more previously existing bodies, and yet be not

admitted as a new creation, it must be a transmutation.

1 An Edinburgh engraver of great ta- head-piece prefixed to the printed for-lent, who had engraved the symbolical mulas of the Brotherhood.


[Now, it seems to me that the idea of transmutation of

certain original inorganic forms, or even of a unity into

multiplicity, is a simpler idea than that of repeated acts

of creation of inorganic bodies.

“Now I admit the repeated creations of organized

beings, but in all such, the material of these organisms

was derivative;the ‘ creations

5

bearing reference to the

appearance on earth of an animus hmiting the matter,

by which its appearance was made manifest, differently

from any limitation of matter which had resulted pre-

viously from the presence of a prior animus.

“ Moreover, the organic and inorganic world, being

in a relation of polarity with each other, no argument

can be drawn from the former as to the probability of

successive creative acts in the latter, but rather the con-

trary.]

“ All that I have marked in red ink 1is perhaps too

obscurely transcendental to weigh with every one, with-

out such an exposition of the system on which it de-

pends, as cannot be given in a hurried scrawl such as

this.

“ But tell me what you think of the previous ques-

tion. When I put it here, men become puzzled, and

Day and I both answer it in Brown’s favour.

“ At present I shall arrest my letter;

perpetual

hurry and work breaks up my corresponding time sadly.

I long for such tranquil, merry, philosophical days and

nights as we used to spend in Lothian Street.

“ How are all the Brethren ? Adieu !

“ E. Forbes.”

1 The paragraphs within brackets.


This spring lie joined the Linnsean Society, 1 and read

before it a paper on the Ophiuridse of the iEgean Sea,

which was published the following autumn in the Trans-

actions of the Society. 2

It was only by dint of the most strenuous labour,

that on the 8th of May he found himself ready to begin

his botanical lectures. The inaugural discourse was

devoted to botany considered as a science and as a

branch of medical education,— a thoughtful, suggestive

essay, written in a singularly quiet style, yet with traces

of that fanciful conception and that deep love of analogy,

so eminently characteristic of the mind of Edward

Forbes. In the earlier paragraphs he divides the natural

history sciences into three—zoology, botany, and minera-

logy— and adds that geology formed the exposition of

the mutual connexion of the three. To quote his own

expressive words, geology “ may be looked upon as the

history of the earth’s changes during its preparation for

the reception of organized beings, a history which has

all the character of a great epic, having for its hero,

Man or, as he subsequently altered the last clause, “ a

great epic, the proemium of Man.” Alluding to the

analogies between the animal and vegetable kingdoms,

he remarks that “ both kingdoms seem pervaded by a

double representation of each other;two great spheres,

as it were, repeated within themselves;a representation

which will, in all probability, be found as true in the

major as in the minor groups of organized beings.”

This analogy was one on which he loved to dwell. In> On 7th February 1843. the whole published in the nineteenth' Part of the paper was read on 21st volume of the Transactions of the So-

March, and the rest on 6tli June, and ciety, p. 143,

344 MEMOIR OF chap. xi.

the preparation of his lectures he kept it steadily in

view, and it suggested those relations between plants

and animals which formed the subject of the memoir on

the Morphology of the Sertularian Zoophyte, read at

the meeting of the British Association(1844

), a paper

which he regarded as one of liis most important con-

tributions to science.

There was a fresh, healthy tone about this introduc-

tory lecture which argued well for the lectures to follow.

Though addressing himself chiefly to medical students,

he discarded at once the doctrine that the natural

sciences had served their turn when they had yielded to

the student a certain number of names and facts, the

recollection of which might be serviceable in after life.

He seemed to have come fresh from Nature to demand

for her study a high and honourable place among the

recognised courses of mental training. He sought to

impress upon his students that he aimed not so much to

give them facts as the power of observing and dis-

criminating them. “A student of any science/' he

observed, “ well trained in the modes of investigation

which that science teaches, is a much more valuable

member of society than a youthful encyclopaedia or a

living book of facts." He wished to make them fellow-

workers, and to infuse into their spirits somewhat of the

zeal and enthusiasm which burnt so ardently in his own.

“ Much, very much," he assured them, “ yet remains to

be done;and there is no fresher field for original

research and the development of a grand philosophy

than that of natural history.”

No wonder, then, that his class became popular. In


the number of matriculated students it stood only second

among the botanical classes in London, but it was also

frequented by many amateurs, drawn by his fascinating

and novel treatment of the study of plants. Nor was

the lecture-room the sole source of attraction. He re-

newed his favourite custom of taking the students to the

country, and training them to habits of observation in

the field. “ Those who attended his class/' wrote a friend

and fellow-student of his own, “ will ever remember the

charm he threw around the study of vegetable structure,

and the delightful hours they spent in his company dur-

ing the periodical excursions, which he made a point of

taking with his pupils, in the neighbourhood of London.

Nor were these excursions attended by pupils alone.

Many are the distinguished men of science in London

who sought tins opportunity of availing themselves of

his great practical knowledge of every department of

natural history.” 1 Writing in the autumn of tins year to

his friend, Dr. Balfour, the future Professor of Botany at

Edinburgh, he thus describes his summer lectures :—

“ My class last summer went off very well. I had

a most excellent set of men, who behaved admirably,

and never flagged in attendance. I had three or four

excursions of much interest, managed in our old fashion,

alarming the neighbouring villages by an invasion of

twenty or so vasculiferi. Shaw acted as my esquire andjester on all these occasions, and Lankester, with someother amateurs, also occasionally joined my ranks. Mypupils were forty-eight in number, next to Lindley’s, thebest botanical class in London. If the forty- eight all

1 A thencemn, for November 25, 1854.


paid the fees into my pocket more Scotico, it would be

very satisfactory;but the College absorbs more than a

fourth of it, so that my receipts were much under the

hundred; and as in one’s first course there are manyexpenses, I get but little out of the total. As the Col-

lege has a diagram painter, there was a saving on that

score;for being obliged to be at the Geological all day

long, I have no time to paint diagrams. The most pro-

voking want is having no botanic garden, and I have no

spare days to run after and make friends with gardeners,

so that I have great difficulty in procuring fresh illustra-

tions. Hooker offered me them from Kew, but on con-

dition that I should go and select for myself personally,

which is impossible as I am situated. We have a capital

herbarium at the College, but when it is to be put into

the state it should be I really cannot tell. It vexes memuch thus to find myself unable to give sufficient time

to any one thing.

“ The medical professors at King’s are a capital set

of men, enthusiastic and talented. I have a fine room

for a museum, and should desire nothing better than

time and fortune to do as I like there. I am now only

beginning to touch my eastern plants. When they are

sorted they shall be distributed, but I cannot promise as

to the time. My pupils in the ‘ Beacon’ are collecting

with great success, and sent me a few days ago a beauti-

ful little parcel from Mount Ida, in Crete, including some

things which may be new.

“ I commend your intention of writing a text-book.

What we want is a clear statement of the present state

of vegetable physiology and anatomy, and a concise and


r

*

\

)

a

)

I

contrasting view of the orders in a portable class volume.

I speak now from having felt the want of such.”

In his account of the botanical session to Captain

Graves, he says, “ I got over my botanical lectures a

fortnight ago. It was terribly hard work, as the Geolo-

gical keeps me all day at it. I am rather fagged, and

don’t half like having so much to do;

it has threatened

to knock me up several times. Both offices are hard

work, no play, and little pay. I had a good botanical

class, forty-eight pupils, who were most attentive, and

gave me three cheers at the end of the course—rather

subversive of discipline. I gained great popularity by

taking them out in three long walks into the country,

and ending the days by dining together, with lots of

punch (in moderation) and good songs. It was a new

system in London, but I think will do. So much of the

fees go to the College, that £64 was all my share, most

of which went in necessary expenses.”

When we consider the large amount of his time con-

sumed by the Curatorship of the Geological Society, and

also that the Report of his researches in the East formed

part of his evening work, we cannot fail to be struck

with the marked success of the first course of lectures.

Their subject, as he felt when the Chair was first sug-

gested to him, hardly lay within the sphere of his later

studies, and he accepted the appointment with the full

knowledge that he would have to work very hard to give

an average course of lectures. And yet when the time

came he had no leisure for lengthened and careful pre-

paration, indeed hardly time for preparation of any kind,

seeing that only two months before the summer session


of King’s College began, lie confessed that he had not

been able “ to touch his lectures.” But besides his scien-

tific work, in order “ to make the ends meet,” as he

phrased it, he found it needful to throw off short literary

contributions to the periodicals, especially the Literary

Gazette. These necessarily occupied a considerable part

of his leisure, and sadly encroached on the hours that

should have been spent at the lectures, the TEgean Re-

port, or other original researches.

This pressure of work told with marked effect on his

spirits. His letters to Thompson, that were wont to be

so vivacious, now contain frequent lamentations over his

over-work, and the utter hopelessness of extricating him-

self from it. Thus, on July 20, when the lectures were

nearly over, he writes :—

“ Dear Thompson,—On thinking over my letters

lately to you, I fear I have been saying ill-natured tilings.

You must pardon them, as my perpetual slavery here is

fast spoiling a naturally bad temper, and making me like

Tittlebat Titmouse in the novel. When your note came

last night it found me in the dumps, and terribly gloomy.

Not ten minutes before ,one of the most reasonable

of geologists, brought me back two most difficult papers,

one very long, to abstract, which, two months ago, he

had volunteered to do (they were his own), now saying

that he thought I should do them much better than he

could, and that they were not very difficult ! thus giving

me a full week’s work additional. But I am the servant

and they the masters, so it is no use grumbling, though

it’s terribly down-heartening.

“ On Saturday my lectures conclude, when I shall


work as hard as I can to get the Report over. I do hope

to get it done, but have my fears. If done, I go to Cork/'

Again, six days afterwards : “Dear Thompson,-—I am writ-

ing hard at my Report. I have already made the rough

reduction of all the dredging papers. On principle I

must make it as near publishing mark as possible, before

bringing it up, as I object, and so do most of the mem-

bers, to any papers being read at the Association in a

state in which they would not be admitted by a scientific

society. Therefore I must not, if possible, read rough

notes. I may retain the appendix of new diagnoses till

afterwards. I have made up my mind to go to Cork.

Lankester and I go together;Babington will meet us

there. You must beat up among your countrymen for

papers in our section, as I fear much the naturalists

will not muster very numerously.” A few days later he

reports, “ The vacation here is no vacation to me. I have

as much to do as ever, and am puzzled how to get ready

my Report in time. Besides, I am threatened at present

with an inflammation of the eyes. If I am laid up, and

can’t bring my Report to Cork, I won’t go, but don’t anti-

cipate such at present, fully intending to be there. It

would not be worth my while to go there without myReport.”

He had this year all his old anxiety to see a full

assembly of philosophers at the British Association which

was to meet at Cork. To naturalists, geologists, chemists,

and physicists he writes or sends, urging an unhesitating

visit to the Green Isle, even in spite of Dan O’Connell

and Repeal. Many naturalists, however, had declined to

go. “We must, therefore,” he said, “ make up for want of


numbers in the natural history Section by energy. I

think the Cork people ought to give me a dinner for act-

ing as amateur whipper-in. I think I have persuaded

Playfair to change his mind, and go for the sake of

chemistry.”

After the meeting of the Association, and a brief

visit to Killarney, he returned to England, and spent a

few days with his sister, Mrs. Atwood, in Staffordshire.

While there he wrote to Thompson, “ In a week I return

to London, having a sad arrear of work on hand, in the

way of Geological Proceedings, which must, if possible, be

out before the meetings in November. I am hard at

work at them here, having brought the papers with me.

Since I saw you I have had a momentary return of myfever, known by its peculiar symptoms. It was, how-

ever, very slight, and I hope, as it gets slighter and

slighter every attack, it will soon disappear, unless

fagging in London aggravates the next return of it.

“ The hurry and bustle at Cork prevented mydoing many things I intended. On the whole our Sec-

tion did very well, and it was in some sort a triumph

to the provincial naturalists, as, except Owen, all the

London chiefs were absent. It is to be regretted that

Ogilby and Hyndman were not there to make up the list

of Irish naturalists. The exacting spirit of the geologists

at the beginning put me in bad humour for the meeting,

and I have not yet recovered my natural spirits;

if any

of them take a grudge at my insubordination, they have

it in their power to persecute unmercifully.

“ I am glad to see that Ross and his expedition have

returned safe and sound. I wish (it is not right, however,


to do so) they had been two or three months later, as it

is very probable the demand they will make on the Ad-

miralty for publication grants will prevent Government

lending its ear to the recommendation for the publication

of the vEgean work.”

While still at his sister s, a friend had written to urge

his acceptance of the Curatorship of the Zoological So-

ciety, and on arriving in London (28th September), he

thus stated his views to Thompson :“ About the Zoologi-

cal Curatorship, six days ago I wrote to Ogilby giving

my reasons for not entering upon it. I have thought

well over it, and it seems to me to lie leaping from the

frying-pan into the fire;

for as sure as I did so, not only

would I have a nest of geologists, but also one of zoolo-

|gists about my ears. Were the situation such a one as

would be a final object, it would be all well; but if I

1 thought that I was destined to be either zoological or

geological curator all my life, I should vanish im-

mediately and stand the consequences. There is more

mercy among immortals than mortals.

“ Another and most cogent reason is this, that it is

impossible to do the duties of the King’s College Chair

in connexion with any office requiring attendance every

day, and all day, except the Geological, which is so near

that I can run across and do things by snatches. Now,it is through the professorship I look to better things

(if there be such), and it won’t do to give it up till the

last moment. In the meantime, I am infinitely obliged

to Ogilby, and shall not forget his kindness. Au reste,

I must just slave on.”

Again, on 12th October, he writes to the same corre-


spondent, “ That about the zoological I fully treated of

when I wrote;the more I think of it, the more I see

that the necessity of my being near the College, if I amto hold any stewed-up office at all, forces me to remain

where I am. The College is better this year than ever,

and is the only medical school in London which has in-

creased;but grow as it will I am no better, for the

botanical chair will never enable its holder to quit offices

elsewhere.

“ As to the Athenaeum, I certainly should like to be a

member, but doubt if my income warrants such extrava-

gance. Poor working men have no business in clubs,

and such are not likely to be elect of the committee, and

I would not ask the favour of any big-wig to propose

me.”

It is pleasing to mark how deep an interest, even in

the midst of the engrossments of his London life, he

continued to take in the wellbeing of his family, and

how fully alive he showed himself to the weight of re-

sponsibility which rested on his shoulders. Thus, on the

25th October, he writes to George Wilson

“ Dear Wilson,—The pressure of the times, as the

phrase goes, has prevented my putting my intentions of

writing to you in practice for a long time. You must

pardon my neglect, as you wrote last.

“ Yesterday I had a note from Goodsir, in which he

delivers a message from you regarding a little brother1

of mine whom I formerly spoke of making into a chemist.

1 Mr. David Forbes, already referred result of observations in many different

to in this Memoir, and widely known for parts of the world,

his researches in chemical geology, the


I wish much your advice on the subject, as it is time 1

should be thinking of it. The lad is fourteen, very

talented, but very versatile, of an enthusiastic disposition

as regards science, but given, like myself, to meddle

with too many subjects. Chemistry is, however, his

hobby, and the knowledge he has picked up is surprising,

considering that he managed to make himself acquainted

with it in the Isle of Man. Of course, much of this

being irregular, would have to be unlearned. At present

he is at a school in Essex for the winter, working up, I

hope, his mathematics, as I lectured him strongly on the

importance of that branch of science to chemistry;

‘ for-

bye,’ I know mighty little about it myself. Now, it

seems to me that for a lad of this kind there might be a

1

l

good opening as an analytical and advising chemist,

especially in some of the English mining and pottery

counties, or if a manufacturing firm would receive him

to put him in fan* train there. Circumstances require

that whatever be done with him, it be done as econo-

mically as possible, my revenues, professorial and cura-

torial, being as yet small, and his further education,

in all probability, being likely to fall on my shoul-

ders. To give him a good scientific grounding first,

is the great thing, and Edinburgh is doubtless the best

place. I have seen something lately of the men whomake money as analytical chemists in the English

provinces; they are all empirics. Now, a clever young

fellow well grounded and trained in scientific chemistry

would, I think, if steady, make a good thing of it in

the end.

“ Please give your opinion on these plans, as it will

z

354 MEMOIR OP CHAP. XI.

greatly guide me in my arrangements for my brother’s

benefit.

“ Now, to other matters. I heard some time ago that

your health was not so promising;

I now hear you are

looking up again, and promise to get over your ailments.

Be careful, and doubtless you will master them. ... Dotell me all about Brown, as I am most anxious to know,

and John Goodsir’s letters only whet one’s appetite.

“ If you drop into the reading-room, there is a little

squib of mine in this day’s Literary Gazette,entitled

‘ Blarney Revisited,’ which may amuse you. Adieu

!

dear Wilson.—Your true friend and frater,

“ Edward Forbes.”

Further on in the winter, he was thrown into despair

by the illness of another member of the family. “ I have

been in such a state of anxiety,” he writes to Mr. Thomp-

son, “ in consequence of the dangerous illness of my only

surviving sister, who was, during a week, hourly ex-

pected to die, but who, I am happy to say, has had a

sudden and miraculous convalescence, at least for a time,

that I have been unable to touch either your work or

mine, and, until Thursday, did all my duties mechani-

cally. Now, however, I hope in a day or two to have

gone over the shells you left with me, and tell the results.”

During the month of December 1843, and the early

part of the following month, Forbes had to wage a con-

stant and often unequal battle with debility and illness,

arising, as he believed, from his “ extremely sedentary and

too worrying life.” He suffered from frequent returns of

fever, which not only reduced his physical strength, but

184 -4 . EDWARD FORBES. 355

by throwing his work into arrear, harassed and annoyed

I

>

J

i

[

i

him. Thus, on January 8, 1844, he wrote :

—

“ Dear Wilson,

—

I am still an invalid, and this is mythird day out of bed. I fancy, during my visit to Ireland,

I caught the potato- disease, for I am sorely afflicted in the

kidneys. It knocks me up for good work, and as I am in

bad humour with the imperfection and delay of all I do,

or rather attempt, I am not in the best condition for

getting well speedily. Anent John Goodsir, I am very

anxious, both for him and for the University, to which,

having been an undutiful son, I bear great affection.

Here, in London, any other appointment to the anatomy

chair than that of Goodsir will be looked on with won-

der, for of the men officially connected with the Univer-

sity, James D. Forbes and he are regarded as the brightest

stars, and the farthest in advance of their time. The

brilliancy and beauty and philosophical spirit of Goodsir s

essays are unequalled in these times, and all men able to

judge here and abroad look upon him as a redeeming

light in Edinburgh.

“ To poetry again. Let me recommend to your per-

usal Duffy’s Irish Ballads. It is full of beautiful poems,

especially those of poor Davis, and of my friend Fergu-

son.”

In the Christmas week he succeeded in paying a visit

of two days to Cambridge, and inspected the Colleges

with Mr. Ansted and Mr. Babington. “ I was greatly

pleased with my visit,” lie says, “ except in one thing,

—

to find that natural history is discouraged as much as

possible, and regarded as idle trifling by the thousand

and one mathematicians of that venerated University.”


At this time, and during the ten years that followed,

his friends were constantly on the watch to apprise him

of any natural history chair vacant, or likely to become

so, which might take him out of his uncongenial turmoil

and excitement. It is amusing to see from his letters

how various were the subjects, as well as the emoluments,

of these chairs, and often how small the likelihood that,

even if gained, they would make his life a quieter or

more useful one. But any appointment that would re-

move him from London seemed to his many true-hearted

correspondents in the country, the very thing that Forbes

needed. And so, whenever the rumour rose that such or

such a chair would soon require to be filled anew, the

tidings sped at once by half a dozen channels to Forbes’s

sanctum in Somerset House.

A friend had written to urge his application for one

of the Irish chairs. Of this project he remarked to Mr.

Thompson (5th January), “ I fear to venture on any

steps, and certainly would not under any circumstances,

so long as is even nominally in the field. At any

rate, I could not conscientiously face a botanical chair,

doing so little—indeed, nothing as I am—in botany.

Moreover, any such contest would, in all probability, do

away with any chance of getting Jameson’s chair, which,

small chance as I fear there is of getting, is now my for-

lorn hope, and only chance of escape from the worrying

complication of offices in which I now am. I doubt also

whether it would be worth while for me to go to Dublin

without a prospect of a better salary (for fees are very

precarious and changeable), and also of having more

time at disposal than the curatorship would admit.


“ Under any circumstances, 1 had probably best hold

on where I am. I am like a sailor whose ship has gone

down, and who is floating about the sea with a frail hold

on a rough plank, but dares not give it up, lest he go to

the bottom.

“ A year next month and I shall be thirty ;my ap-

prenticeship, in the German sense, will then be up. If

things do not look better, I have serious thoughts of

abandoning science then for other views ;but time

enough to talk of that when the time comes.”

The reference to Edinburgh in this note is repeated

again a few days afterwards. “ I spoke of Edinburgh

merely because it is the only resource;but suppose it be-

came vacant, I know not how I could get hold of it. It

\is in the gift of the Crown. Goodsir and others are

anxious I should look out for it, and will give me earliest

information on the subject;but I altogether despair of

it. There will probably be many candidates;very likely

Jardine, whose political interest will weigh;

also Flem-

ing, for whom there will be a strong push made by the

Free Church party. Perhaps the chair will be split up,

and, in that case, neither of the sections will be worth

taking. My time here is less than ever, as work at the

Geological is continually accumulating. The ‘Rambles’

are at a stand (though 1 don’t like to tell Van Voorst

so), for I am fitter for sleeping than writing when I get

up to Southwick Street. My plants are rotting, and

half my collections going to ruin. I wish I had stuck

to the brush, and never meddled with natural history,

which is only fit for independent amateurs.”

In reference to another chair, he wrote again


“ I could not conscientiously take the Doctor’s professor-

ship, even if it were offered me; I am not sufficient of a

‘ physician’ (in the French sense) to be a geological pro-

fessor. If it was a chair of Paleontology or Zoo-Geology

or Natural History in general, it would suit. Besides,

in these matters, I am a good deal tied up by college

etiquette. It was hinted to me by a very good autho-

rity, that if I applied for a certain three years’ zoological

lectureship, I would in all probability get it. But myhands are tied. I must not take up any branch identical

with that of a college chair. I don’t complain of it, for

the rule is a good one, and must be adhered to for the

peace of Universities.

“ However, at this moment, there is a glimmer of

hope of another kind, the nature of which I am not at

liberty yet to divulge, as it depends on a contingency,

which a few weeks will decide. It may take me out

of the very unpleasant position I am hi here, and

put me in one which will at least lead to good things.

Don’t mention or hint it yet, but answer the following

query :

—

“ If the geological curatorship were suddenly to

become vacant, would think of it in preference to

his present office ?”

He refers (under date February 24) in equally

mysterious language to this projected scheme for re-

moving; him from Somerset House. “ Work here in

creases every day. If I had not the prospect of getting

out of it ere long (as I hinted in my last) I should give

way under it. It is true that much of the work, such

as reporting on fossils, is original, and adds to ones


reputation, but it is impossible to do this to order, and

do the routine work too.

“ However, I hope it will soon be over, and am, con-

sequently, in better spirits and health ;the one a necessary

consequence of the other. I am not yet at liberty to

divulge the nature of my plans, but my friends are

determined to get it done, and the very few Geol. Soc.

men who know what is in progress, viz., Fitton and

Stokes (there may be others, but they have not hinted),

are anxious for it, as they now see and say that this is

not the place for me. The mover also is an f.g. s.;

his name and the whole history you shall know by and

by;

I hope very soon/'

The project which he so desired should be kept

secret (and which he himself did keep so secret, that

he boasts to Captain Graves that “ even old 1 Thomp-

son knows nothing about it,") was none other than

his transference from the Geological Society to the

Geological Survey. It appeared to Sir Henry de la

Beche, the director of the Survey, that the labours of his

officers would be materially aided by the appointment

of a palaeontologist as a member of his staff. At the

suggestion of Mr. A. C. Ramsay, one of his surveyors,

he had determined that the post should be offered to

Forbes, and was in treaty with the Government for this

purpose. The duties of the Palaeontologist were to

name and arrange the fossils of the museum, to deter-

mine the fossil-characters of formations by personal

inspection in the field, and to publish from time to time

1 “Old” was a favourite epithet of Captain Graves, applied by him to his mostintimate friends.


the palaeontological results obtained by the operations of

the survey. For such engagements no man presented

higher qualifications than the curator of the Geological

Society. The few friends in that Society who were

admitted into the secret, though reluctant to lose his

services in a post to fill which they looked in vain for

a competent successor, yet stood staunchly by him, and

everything bade fair for a speedy settlement.

With the prospect of soon entering a less exacting

sphere of labour, the work at the Geological Society,

though not less abundant, became less irksome. On the

2d of February he writes :—“ Dear Thompson,—For

the last ten days I have been at work all day, and,

frequently, through three-fourths of the night, getting on

with the report, which our president commanded, on the

British Lower Greensand, 1 and on the Indian Cretaceous

Fossils, 2 which reports have taken up as much time as

could be given to them since the summer;but which,

nevertheless, were not ready when called for. The

description in full, measuring and comparison, of about

180 new species (of fossils too), and the rectification of

the synonyms of as many old ones, was no easy matter,

and a more laborious task than the geologists fancy.

However, by over-work, I contrived to have the results

ready for Wednesday night, when I laid the reports on

the table, and read a short statement of the conclusions

I had come to, too brief and too deep to be understood

by most who were there;but, as it will be printed, I

1 “On the Lower Greensand Fossils 2 “ Report on the Collection of Fossils

in the possession of the Geological So- from Southern India, presented by C.

ciety

—

Jour. Geol. Soc. I. 78, 237, J. Kaye, Esq. and the Rev. W. H.

345. Egerton.”—Jour. Geol. Soc. I. 79.


don’t care. All those who can understand it will then

see its value.

“ In the meantime, shoals of letters, requests, queries,

etc., he unanswered;

some of them requesting im-

mediate replies. I am quite as bad as Goodsir, so feel

your abuse of him as affecting myself. I answer your

letters, because short answers will do ;but I have many

lying by me from other friends nearly a year old, which

I can’t find energy enough to sit down to. You ‘ gentle-

men who sit at home at ease,’ must not be too hard on

us poor professionals, to whom a spare moment is like

the intermission of an ague, too valuable to be spent in

doing anything.

“ I am now overhauling a pile of letters. Among

which I expect to re-discover some of yours.”

Notwithstanding these declarations, his correspond-

ence at this time would have been regarded by most men

as sufficiently voluminous. Every alternate day (some-

times every day) brought a note from Thompson, usually

on natural history subjects, which demanded some exa-

mination of books and specimens, or no small measure of

thoughtful consideration. Yet Forbes found time to

keep up the correspondence without much irregularity,

his replies being not merely notes, but often long letters.

The interest, too, which he took in the transmutation war

of Dr. Samuel Brown, led him into frequent correspond-

ence with George Wilson. He fought his friend’s battle

in London, and at this time wrote almost every week to

Edinburgh, to learn the state of the controversy and the

positions of the chemists. Nor was this all;he had

another circle of correspondents on the Mediterranean.

362 MEMOIR OP CHAP. XI.

To Captain Graves lie sent nearly every month a long

palimpsest of home news, with good wishes to each andall of his old comrades in the east. Lieutenant Spratt,

Mr. Hoskyn, and others, also received occasional letters

from him. When to these are added the countless little

notes and memoranda of a business kind which, in spite

of his repugnance, he found himself forced to write, weshall find cause not to blame his tardiness as a corre-

spondent, but to wonder how he could possibly contrive

to succeed as he did.

In March, he paid a short visit to the Isle of Wight,

along with Captain Ibbetson, to examine the development

of the Lower Greensand strata, and obtain information

to guide him in the preparation of his Reports on the

Fossils. The results of this visit were embodied in a

short paper read before the Geological Society (May

1st), 1 and they also afforded material for a paper (with

a large model) read before the British Association in the

autumn of this year.

Besides the reports and catalogues of the fossils of

the Geological Society, he this spring prepared a lecture

on “ The light thrown on Geology by submarine re-

searches,” for one of the evening meetings of the Royal

Institution. To the preparation of this lecture he gave

much time and thought, seeing that it was the most im-

portant opportunity that had occurred for the promulga-

tion of the general views to which the iEgean researches

had led him, and for the elucidation of those philosophical

doctrines of the interconnexion of geology with the biolo-

gical sciences which, ever with him a favourite theme,

1 Jour. Geol. Soc. i. 190.


c

£

1

0

had for the last year or two been gradually occupying

more and more of his time, and taking in consequence a

more definite and appreciable form.

It was delivered on the evening of the 23d of Feb-

ruary, and began by a reference to the early labours of

Donati and Soldani (who dredged the Adriatic about the

middle of last century), and then to his own dredging

explorations in the Irish Sea and the fiEgean. It con-

sisted of a number of propositions;

as, 1st, That marine

animals and plants are grouped according to species at

particular depths in the sea, and that thus, as we descend

from the shore to the abysmal deeps, we meet with dif-

ferent zones characterized by different forms of life,

exactly as in ascending a snow-capped mountain we find

the flora and fauna gradually change as we recede from

the plains. He next showed that the number of species

diminishes according to depth, there being, according to

his experience, no plants below 100 fathoms, and the

probable zero of life about 300 fathoms. 1 Sedimentary

deposits formed in greater depths would not contain

organic remains save what might be drifted into deep

water, and he, therefore, cautioned geologists against

inferring that because a series of unaltered sedimentary

rocks contained no fossils they must needs have been

formed prior to the creation of life. 2>d, That as British

species of mollusca occur in all zones of depth in the

Mediterranean, but are most numerous in the lower

zones, there must be a representation of climates or

parallels of latitude in depth, just as there is a corre-

1 Subsequent researches by other natu- for laying the Atlantic cable, livingFora-ralists necessitate a modification of these minifera were found at 2000 fathoms,figures. Thus in the recent soundings and living star-fishes at 1260 fathoms.

364 MEMOIR OF ClIAP. XI.

sponding representation in height in the animal and

vegetable productions of a mountainous country. 4:th,

That all sea-bottoms are not equally favourable to life,

sandy parts being usually the desert ones. Hence amongrocks sandstones are usually sparingly fossiliferous. Whena new variety of sea-bottom supervenes on the older one,

a new tribe of organisms occupies its site, and thus were

explained certain organic changes which often accom-

pany lithological ones in the stratified portion of the

earth’s crust.

He next showed that such animals as are common to

many zones of depth are those which have the widest

horizontal range in space, being necessarily most inde-

pendent of destroying influences, as elevations or depres-

sions of the sea-bed. Such changes of level, even to a

small extent, tend to the destruction of the species of a

zone, and unless some provision were made the organisms

would become extinct. This provision was effected, as

Forbes now announced, by the remarkable circumstance

that the mollusca migrate. Even the most sedentary of

them, the limpets, in their egg-state are floated over the

sea from shore to shore, but, of course, only arrive at

perfection in the zone for which they are adapted. The

lecture concluded by a reference to the harmony of the

views now promulgated with those entertained by many

modern geologists.

As a lecture it had a marked success. “ The night,’

as he wrote next day to Thompson, “ was villanously

bad, yet, in spite of the weather, I had a veiy splendid

audience. The geologists behaved well, and mustered

strongly. It went off capitally, and I have reason to


believe will do much to raise my position here/' He

was right in his anticipation. It was now that he ob-

tained that hold, which he never afterwards lost, upon

the respect and sympathy of the higher influential class

of London society.

To the success of this lecture he attributed the grant

of £500 now given by Government to assist the publica-

tion of the yEgean researches. It also procured him an

invitation from Sir Robert Peel to a soiree given by

that minister in honour of the King of Saxony, of

which Forbes has left an account in a letter to Mr.

1 Thompson :

—

“ Sir Robert’s party,” he says (July 1),“ was very plea-

sant. There was no crowd. It consisted of about half

savans and half noblemen, with a due sprinkling of ladies,

y among whom were several very beautiful creatures. Lady

Peel showed to great advantage as respects her amiability,

paying every attention to her guests. The Premier

was abstracted and silent, though wearing a sterotyped

smile. He was not in the room when 1 arrived, so that

I had no formal introduction to him, but hearing Lord

Northampton address me by name during the evening,

he came up in a very marked manner, shook hands

warmly, and expressed his gratification at what I had

been about, and at the results of my travels. This was

done in such a way that Lord Northampton, not under-

standing how Sir Robert should know them, fancied there

was a mistake, and explained to the minister that he

might be confounding me with my Edinburgh name-sake.

This Sir Robert showed he had not done by telling Lord

Northampton what researches he alluded to, which seemed

MEMOTR. OF CIIAP. xr.36 G

to ] (lease the p. it. s. much. His Lordship then intro-

duced me to the King, who, having put some question

about the Adriatic, 1 was enabled to tell him what he

had done there when I was at Trieste, and what newplants he had found. His Majesty looked uncommonlypleased to find the details of his doings so well known,

and talked to me about Tommasini and his journey for

some time. He speaks English pretty well. On the

whole you see I got off very well.

“ Sir Robert Peel was also marked in his attention to

Yarrell, seeking out the little man among the crowd, shak-

ing hands with him, and telling him what pleasure his

books had given him. These doings were the more not-

able as the minister did not talk to everybody.”

In a postscript to one of his notes to George Wilson,

inquiring after Samuel Brown, he adds, “Thanks for

your compliment about my lecture, which did me service

here, and I believe, has made me more known in town

than before. As to giving credit to whom credit is due,

rest assured the best way to do good to one’s-self is to do

justice to others. There is plenty for everybody in

science, and more than can be consumed in our time.

One may get a fair name by suppressing references, but

the Jewish maxim is true, ‘ He who seeks a name loses

fame.’”

One result of the lecture was the offering to him pri-

vately of the Fullerian professorship ;a triennial appoint-

ment, with a salary of £100 a year, for which twelve

lectures per annum were given on some natural history

subject. “Were I free,” he wrote to Thompson, “I

should like nothing better, and have been much urged to


r\

l

'

r

ti

take it, but dare not, for I find that I have not half

time enough to do what I am doing, and that my lec-

tures at the College are not what I should wish them to

be. How then could I prepare a distinct set of lectures

with diagram, etc. ? The only way to do it (and that I

would gladly do if I dare, but dare not), would be to give

up the G-. S. This I dare not do, for at the end of the

three years I should go adrift without any distinct means

of existence, for the College will never yield an income.

This year is nominally better than the last, but really

worse, for I shall have to give back half the proceeds

towards a building subscription for the new hospital,

nominally voluntarily, really compulsorily. I am like

one of the personages in the last scene of the ‘ Critic/ if

I move I die, though to stand still is extremely uncom-

fortable when there is a dagger at each side.

“ All this would not give me the blues, if I myself

only were concerned. But the fortunes of my family

have gone wrong. I see clearly now that my two little

brothers at least will have to look to me for everything,

and it is the desire to provide for them that makes meboth anxious and low-spirited.”

This return of despondency arose to a considerable

extent from some vexatious delays as to the post in the

Geological Survey, so that for a while it seemed very

doubtful whether his appointment would take place at

all. Nor was it until the beginning of the following

November that the matter came to a final adjustment.

The lecture at the Royal Institution formed only

one of many engagements which Forbes found leisure

to accomplish during the spring of 1844 . He con-


tributed several articles to the Literary Gazette and the

Athenceum ; such, for instance, as one on Samuel Brown’s“ Chemical Theories” in the former periodical, and in the

latter, reviews of Phillip’s “ Life of Smith,” Richardson’s“ Geology,” Ansted’s “

Geology,” etc.;

also several jeux

desprit to the same journals. In the revision of his

botanical lectures for King’s College, he continued the

investigation of the analogy between plant and animal

on which he dwelt during the first season, and he nowembodied the results in a paper for the ensuing meeting

of the British Association to be held at York.

The end of July brought his second course of lectures

at King’s College to a close, a result which he chronicles

as “ a great relief.” But the press of work at the Geo-

logical Society still continued. Sir Henry de la Beche

had indeed given him an informal notice of appointment

as palaeontologist of the Survey, and, acting on this,

he began, when the lectures were over, to arrange the

work at the Society’s Museum, preparatory to the re-

signation of his post there. But the Government situa-

tion remained as unsettled as ever, and, until he received

an official notice of appointment to the new office, he

had resolved not to resign the old.

In this state of uncertainty he was glad to find him-

self in the second week of August among the hills of

Wales. He joined Sir Henry de la Beche, Mr. Ramsay,

and Mr. Warrington Smyth at Builth in Breconshire,

and remained there for some days, taking part in the ex-

cursions by which the geology of the district was explored,

and learning the general habits of the Survey, of which

he hoped ere long to become a member. From Wales


he went to Liverpool, to visit Mr. Macandrew, and

study that gentleman’s collection of mollusca. The two

naturalists spent some time yachting along the shores

of Angiesea, and dredging whenever an opportunity

qpresented itself.

These changes of scene and occupation put new

life and energy into a body that had become somewhat

jaded in the struggle with bad health and overwork.

He returned to London to prepare for the Association

meeting, and at once began, as usual, to act the part of

what he called “ an amateur whipper-in.” To Thompson

he writes (September 13) immediately on his return

from the Irish Sea :—“ Of course you will go to York.

The meeting will, I believe, be one of the finest ever

held, and there is a general feeling to support it. Liebig

is in town to go, and many are expected. In the Nat.

Hist. Section we shall have a good muster. Owen,

Schomburgh, H. Goodsir, and Balfour, have told me they

are going, and I hear of others. I hope Ball will appear,

and will rejoice to meet Allman again. Of course

Patterson will come with you, and the more from Belfast

the better. The chemists will be very strong this year,

with Faraday at their head;and the geologists intend

also to fight hard. I shall give you further news in a

day or two, when I have had time to see and hear.”

Again, on the 17th of the same month :

—

“ Themeeting will be a very splendid one. I have just seen

Wheatstone, who tells me that everybody will be there.

. . . My papers are as follows :—

“ In Section G.—A joint paper with Ibbetson (with

splendid models) on the Isle of Wight Cretaceous Sys-

2 A

3 V 0 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XI.

tern, including some startling new views of my own.

I expect a shower of thunderbolts on my head for this.

“In Section D.— 1. My theory of the Polype vesicle,

which, with all becoming modesty, I hold to be one of

the greatest (ideal) discoveries in natural history for

many a day. 2. An Account of Macandrew’s Disco-

veries, including the new Virgularia, and a new genus

of zoophytes, a creeping Alcyonium from Loch Fyne.

3. (If I have time), on a new Beroe proper, and some

anatomical notes on Cydippe. Besides contributions to

the Dredging Beport, which will be good.”

In the paper on the Sertularian Zoophyte,1 after

alluding to the recognised doctrine of the ideal meta-

morphosis of the leaf or vegetable individual, in order

to play a part in the reproduction of the species, he

proceeds to inquire whether some of the humbler com-

posite animals may not show an analogy of parts and

functions. The example cited as illustrating such an

analogy was the Sertularian polype, a branched, horny,

plant-like animal, the branches of which are studded

with little cups or cells. Each of these cells is the

abode of a distinct and independent individual, and yet

each individual shares in the common existence of the

colony. Now, at certain periods in the life of the zoo-

phyte, there appear projecting from the central stalk or

axis, or springing from its branches, variously-formed

bodies called “ vesicles,” in which the ova are eventually

formed. It was the object of this paper to show that

these vesicles really arise from a process analogous to

i “ On the Morphology of the Repro- ductive System of the Flowering Plant,

ductive System of the Sertularian Zoo- Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. December

phyte, and its analogy with the Repro- 1844.

1844. EDWARD FORBES.o Hr 1O I L

that which produces the flower in a plant, viz., through

an arrest of individual development, and the transforma-

tion of the individuals into an ovigerous mass, the little

cells uniting to form protecting sheaths, within which

the development of the new individuals is carried on.

On getting back to London after the York meeting,

he wrote (19th October 1844) :

—

“ Dear Thompson,—By this time you will have re-

covered the excitement of the York meeting. I went

from York to Percy’s at Birmingham, and found Faraday

and his lady staying at P.’s. This was very delightful,

as I had an opportunity of studying Faraday’s char-

acter, which I found of the most open, simple, playful,

and philosophical kind. We spent two days together,

the mornings seeing sights and talking over science,

the evenings conjuring and playing tricks, at which

the great chemist is a first-rate hand. He was de-

lighted with the York meeting.”

The appointment to the Geological Survey still re-

mained as undecided as it had been eight months before.

Sometimes it seemed quite settled, and he was urged to

clear off arrears at the Society, so as to be ready to enter

immediately on the new duties. Then came a shade of

doubt, deepening ere long into dark and hopeless uncer-

tainty. In this state of alternate hope and fear, he

remained from the beginning of February till the end of

October.

He had undertaken the duties of the curatorship with

the determination to discharge them to the full. But

his conception of their nature and extent was so high,

that to fulfil them as he felt they should be fid fiber],


demanded more thought and time than were compatible

with the simultaneous prosecution of independent ori-

ginal research. Add to this the large admixture of

mechanical and uncongenial drudgery which every such

office necessarily entails, the constant distraction of visi-

tors, the endless questionings of learned and unlearned,

and the weight of responsibility under which all these

tasks must be borne, and we shall admit that the curator-

ship of the Geological Society, though well suited for

other men, was no place for Edward Forbes.

Had he been possessed of a robust constitution, great

physical endurance, and a mind little sensitive to the

petty annoyances of life, he might have borne up against

it all, and, indeed, the cheerfulness of his temper did

help to make the irksomeness less pressing. But the

confinement eventually told upon his health, the inability

to find time for study, especially for the preparation of

the yEgean Sea researches, preyed upon his spirits, the

daily returning toil, and the constant turmoil of excite-

ment, almost drove him to despair. At the same time,

it must be freely admitted that as he had never yet been

accustomed to regular and continuous labour, he would

have felt any situation irksome that demanded it. Thus,

duties which another could have accomplished with ease,

and which in the end he might easily have himself dis-

charged, were naturally enough regarded by him as an

intolerable burden. But, more than all, he felt that

precious years were rolling away, while his own legiti-

mate work as a naturalist remained unaccomplished.

He had tried in vain to find the needful leisure;

his

spare hours, when they could be given to work at all,


were claimed by other and more urgent duties. But

oftener lie returned to his home in the evening too jaded

for work, and too glad of a vacant hour, to use it in

any other way than in enjoying the luxury of doing

nothing.

The misfortunes that had visited his family con-

tributed not a little to his anxiety. His father’s pecuni-

ary resources, which were once ample, had all been lost

;

one brother who had been unsuccessful in Australia,

returned to find the home-circle broken up;

his only

sister had been prostrated on a bed of sickness, from

which it was for a while doubtful if she would ever rise;

the youngest brother seemed to have caught the seeds of

a lingering and fatal disease;and the next (also a mere

boy) looked for education and help from Edward, who,

toiling as he did, could barely earn what sufficed for his

own maintenance.

How earnestly he longed for a quieter and more

remunerative post, his own letters show. For several

months the prospect of the Survey appointment kept

dancing fitfully before him, now on the eve of settle-

ment, now as remote as ever. To his other vexations

was added all the torment of suspense. The hope de-

ferred that maketh the heart sick, threw a gloom over his

spirit which all the innate buoyancy and cheerfulness of

his nature could not dispel, and often in the bitterness

of his soul he wished he had never forsaken the brush, or

had chosen some profession that would have kept him

out of pecuniary straits, and enabled him to help his

family as he yearned to do.

Finally, however, towards the end of October, the Sur-

374 MEMOIR OE CHAP. XI.

vey appointment was settled, and Forbes prepared to enter

on his new duties. Like the office of Curator, that of

Palaeontologist must still keep him away from his purely

zoological work. He knew this well at the outset. Wecannot fail to perceive, however, that his interest in geo-

logical research, always strong, had, during his connexion

with the Geological Society, been greatly increased by

additions to his knowledge, and still more by the abun-

dant opportunities of bringing his natural history acquire-

ments to bear upon geological questions. The new Avorld

of zoo-geological investigation, of which he had caught

the first glimpse many years before, in the Isle of Man,

had been slowly growing in extent and interest as he

approached it. Few explorers had yet visited it, at least

in those wide regions that were opening out to his view.

While toiling away at Somerset House, he had seen more

and more of this new country. And though the un-

arranged results of his iEgean work still kept him fret-

fully longing to get back to the older domain of zoology,

first, the delay in obtaining the Government grant, and

then the hindrances of his official duties, kept him

where he was.

Thus, partly by his own choice, and partly by neces-

sity, he was compelled, as we have seen in the case of

the curatorship, and now again as we shall find in that

of Palaeontologist, to forego his more purely zoological

work, and effect a compromise by dovetailing it with

geology. This compromise was made reluctantly enough

at first, but the growing interest of the new work soon

reconciled him to the change. The working out of the

Aegean researches was indefinitely postponed until a


season of greater rest and leisure should arrive. And

after the first repugnance passed away, he entered heart

and soul into that line of palaeontological or zoo-geo-

logical research which occupied the remainder of his life,

and on which his fame chiefly rests.

CHAPTER XII.

THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

To Sir Henry cle la Bedie, of happy memory, the

last of a long line of barons that came to England with

the Conqueror, Great Britain owes her Geological Survey,

and, through it, those of her colonies. A little unobtru-

sive stone marks where he lies in Kensal-Green; a bust

of him stands in the lower hall of the Jermyn Street

Museum, and you may chance now and then to light

upon his engraved likeness in the library of one who

cherishes his memory. But no public epitaph records

the labours of a man who for many a long year, with

unwearied energy, spent time and toil and money in the

service of his country, and in the cause of science. The

volumes which he wrote, with the Survey and Museum

which he founded and fostered, form, after all, his most

fitting epitaph, as well as his proudest memorial. To

have begun a great public work at his own charges, to

have fought under every disadvantage with successive

Governments, little friendly to science, and gradually to

have extorted from them the nucleus of a national sur-

vey, to have guarded its progress, and watched each

opportunity to increase its efficiency, and to have lived

to be still its head, when it had grown up into a con-


(i

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1

1

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.1

i

spicuous branch of the Civil Service, and one of the

most important scientific institutions of the country,

—

these are feats which speak their own glory, and which

will place the name of Henry de la Beche in no mean

rank among the benefactors of his country.

It was under this leader that our naturalist was now

to serve. The staff consisted at that time of nine geolo-

gists1 and a paleontologist, with some assistants, in the

Museum at Craig’s Court, which was the head-quarters

of the Survey. The duties of the geologists were to in-

vestigate the structure of the country, and to insert on

the maps of the Ordnance Survey the various lines of

the different rocks, colouring the sheets eventually as

independent geological maps. But in order to do this

correctly, it was of course necessary to have frequent

recourse to an accurate discrimination of fossils, and for

this purpose a palaeontologist was appointed, to deter-

mine the nature and names of the organic remains ob-

tained by the surveyors or by the fossil-collectors. Thepalaeontologist had thus occasion not only to work in

the Museum, but also to visit the districts where the

geologists were mapping, so as to see the rocks with the

fossils in them, and to fix many points which no palae-

ontologist can adequately determine, save by a personal

inspection in the field. At present, the surveyors worksingly, each taking his own district, but at the period in

1 These were—Mr. A. C. Ramsay, Local Director.

Captain James, R.E.Mr. Warrington W. Smyth.Professor John Phillips.

Mr. David Williams.

Mr. Trevor E. James.

Mr. W. Talbot Aveline.

Mr. Henry W. Bristow.

Mr. William H. Baily.

The Palaeontologist was Professor Ed-ward Forbes, and the Fossil Collector,Mr. Richard Gibbs.

378 MEMOIR OF CHAP. XII.

the Survey’s history to which reference is now made, the

geologists surveyed in parties of two or three, or even

more. Sir Henry used to be much with them, generally

leaving London about the 1st April. Hence, at little

out-of-the-way villages, there would sometimes be col-

lected half-a-dozen stalwart hammerers, who took up all

the beds and devoured all the provisions the resources

of the place could supply.

Of this active and enthusiastic band, Edward Forbes

became a member on the 1st November 1844, with a

salary of £300 a year. With his cautious foresight, he

drew up a memorandum of his duties, stipulating that

his jurisdiction should extend over the whole of the

fossils collected by the Survey in the three kingdoms,

and should not be controlled except by the Director-

General. This memorandum was accepted by the Board

of Ordnance,1 and contained the following clauses :

—

“ 1st, The examination and description of the or-

ganic remains collected during the operations of the

Survey.

“ 2 cl, The classification and arrangement of the said

organic remains, in such order and manner as may most

benefit the public, and tend at the same time to advance

the interests of geology and the natural history sciences.

“ 3 d, The superintendence of the publication of an

account of such organic remains, and of drawings and

engravings of them.

1 At tliis time negotiations were in

progress for the transference of the Geo-

logical Survey from the Board of Ord-

nance to the Department of Woods and

Forests. In the beginning of the fol-

lowing year (1845), the arrangements

were finally completed, and a Treasury

Minute was issued, authorizing the junc-

tion of the Survey and the Craig’s Court

Museum, under the control of the Office

of Woods, etc.


4 th, The communication of information respecting

organic remains, etc., whenever the Government may

require such information.

5th, The attendance on the field operations of the

Survey during a portion of the year, in order to observe

the distribution of organic remains, and their relation to

the strata, so as to verify and correct inductions drawn

in the Museum, and to aid the surveyors in their deter-

minations.”

For some weeks after the date of his appointment he

continued at the Geological Society, finishing what could

be completed in time, and putting everytiling in train

for his successor. The change, he said, was “ a great re-

lief both to body and mind,” and he now began to think

of joining the Societies 1 which his straitened means had

hitherto prevented. To Mr. Thompson he wrote, “I

shall now be proposed as early as possible at the Royal

and the Geological, and shall also sound Stokes on the

subject of the Athenaeum. If I succeed in all these

intentions I shall be in a good position here, and doubt

whether I would leave it for poor ’s chair.”

The sensation of relief found vent in a characteristic

way. Along with several of his more intimate friends

he established a beef-steak dinner-party, which was to be

convened on the third Thursday of every month there-

after, and to bear the cognomen of the Metropolitan Red

Lions. This club has been alluded to in a previous

chapter as a scion of the old stock that sprang up in the

British Association. Its first members were original Red

1 He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society on 4th December 1844;of the

Royal Society on 13th February 1845.


Lions, and carried with them into the younger brother-

hood all the mingled mirth and earnestness that charac-

terized its prototype. Forbes was its acknowledged head.

He sang there some of his merriest songs, and told some

of his raciest stories, amid the vociferous growls and

applauding tails of his leonine brethren. His influence

in these meetings was unbounded, but was an eminently

beneficial one. He drew around him the younger scien-

tific men of London, and while the brilliancy and play-

fulness of his conversation, and the open-hearted cordi-

ality of his nature, bound them to himself, they became

thereby insensibly united to each other, and linked to-

gether as one band. If he showed how a naturalist

might be thoroughly social, he proved also by his daily

life, that the same naturalist could be a patient, earnest

searcher after truth. They knew how diligently he worked,

and they could the better appreciate these periodical re-

laxations, when the exuberance of his spirit gushed forth

in sparkling wit and merry song.

The “Metropolitan Lions,” though at first, as Forbes

called them, “ philosophers,” eventually numbered among

their ranks not a few who, with no peculiar scientific

tastes, yet possessed that love of good fellowship, which

formed the cementing bond of the fraternity. Douglas

Jerrold and Lover, for instance, both became Bed Lions,

and they with kindred spirits used ever to gather round

Forbes, in whose company, artist, litterateur, and savant

met as on common ground.

The foundation of a new society, however, by no

means diminished his love for the old. The interest he

still took in the “ Brotherhood, ' seemed almost as lively


1

;i i

II

• as it used to be in Edinburgh. With Mr. Goodsir and

Dr. Wilson, especially the latter, he kept up a correspond-1j

ence regarding the organization ol the Order, and often

in the midst of the turmoil in London he would sit down

to write to the North for news of the brethren. His

letters to his more intimate friends still bore conspicuously

on their front the mystic triangle. The initials of his

name were often worked into the same symbol, and when

he wished to express the full measure of his sympathy

and friendship, he coined an adverb out of the triangle,

i and subscribed himself, “Ever yours Aly, E. FTJ

But the lapse of years had somewhat stricken the

“ Universal Brotherhood of the Friends of Truth.” Some

of the brethren had done little to strengthen and prepa-

id

gate the principles of the Order;others had even violated

|

them openly, and proved themselves wholly unworthy to

wear the “roseate band.” Hence those who had remained

true to their vows, and were in consequence rising rapidly

in then’ various spheres of employment, looked askance at

the delinquents, and even in some cases, transferred their

dislike to the Order itself. Matters had evidently come

to a crisis when Forbes wrote thus to George Wilson :—

“ 1 bth October.—I regret to hear you say the name

of * frater' is not so dear to you as it was. You must

not blame a body for the false actions or foolish ones of

some, or even many of its members. Bear in mind there

is always a band who, holding the true principles of the

Brotherhood, will stand firm together and maintain them.

You should stand with such, and not retire with the dis-

contented. That the Order requires thorough renewal, weare all agreed; and accordingly, at York, a small conclave

1


met and discussed the matter very fully, seeking out the

causes of evil and the remedies. The former we traced

(as we believed) to the system of government (which

will not work, and must be changed), and to the apathy

and misconduct of some brethren who must be made to

retire;but the principles, as set forth in the formula

which poor dead Dobbie ornamented with his graver, one

and all bound themselves to. One remedy proposed,

and, I believe, a good one, is to demand (after the puri-

fication has taken place) annually an account of the

doings of each ‘ frater/ Suggestions, however, will be

demanded of every one;and do not, my dear friend,

from disgust at the unfraternal conduct of any, desert a

bond of union which may yet do good, and which may

be put into action, the better, now that such among us

as have a mission are gaining reputation, which gives

power.”

A month after this, he referred to the same subject

in a letter to Dr. Percy. “ I hope, now that I have got

cpiit of the Gr. S. (Geological Society), I shall have time

to make all Zk arrangements. If possible, I shall run up

to Edinburgh in Christmas week for that purpose.” This

intention he eventually accomplished, spending a few

days in Edinburgh, where his younger brother David

had entered Dr. Wilson’s class for chemistry. The

breathing time afforded him by the change of duties,

from the Society to the Survey, was not of long dura-

tion, and ere the winter had well begun, Forbes found as

much to occupy him in the second office as he had found

in the first. The distraction, however, was greatly

lessened, and if he could not obtain leisure to carry on


his own work, lie at least was able to attend without

much interruption to that of the Survey. “ I have very

snug quarters,” he wrote to Thompson,“ and have denied

admission to all geologists.” The fossil collections at Craig’s

Court had to be arranged and studied. The surveyors

were at this time engaged in unravelling the geological

structure of Wales, where constant reference had to be

made to fossil evidence. Parcel after parcel of fossils

was sent up to the head-office to be determined by the

Palaeontologist, and on his decision rested the determina-

tion of many of the geological lines. These duties, and

the completion of his elaborate Reports for the Geologi-

cal Society, left Forbes no available leisure, save now

and then for some lighter production, as a, short article

in the Literary Gazette.

The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation

appeared towards the close of this year. Among the

many denunciatory criticisms of that clever but crude

volume, was one by Forbes in the columns of the Lancet.

He speaks of his review as “ short and pithy, taking

effect on the unknown author as well as on the pub-

lisher.”

He undertook to give a course of eight weekly lec-

tures at the Royal Institution, but had no time, he said,,

to make them other than commonplace. The subject

chosen was, “ The Natural History and Geological Dis-

tribution of Fossil Marine Animals.” In the first four

lectures, he gave an outline of the fossil marine faunae,

I

from a natural history point of view;in the second half,

he pointed out the order of succession, as displayed in

the geological formations, and concluded by declaring


bis disbelief in any transmutation of species in time, or

creation in strict serial order, and his opinion that the

laws which regulated the distribution of animals in time,

were probably correspondent to those which regulate

their present distribution in space.

The light in which he regarded the Royal Institution

is well expressed in a letter to Dr. Percy, written shortly

before the commencement of these lectures :“ I would

urge strongly on to look far beyond the applause

of the Royal Institution (a capricious though capable

audience), and to work mainly at his discoveries for the

Association and for the Royal Society, to which, if he

has any very elaborate papers, there would be no diffi-

culty in submitting them. His lectures here will, I hope,

however, gain him some influential friends. Let his

facts and illustrations be as striking as possible, that is,

as remarkable to that part of the audience (more than

half) which consists of those ivho know nothing at all

about the science of the matter, as to those who knoiv

and understand. This is the secret of success in the

Royal Institution and in London. It was the secret of

Davy and Faraday, and of all who have made a sudden

and meteoric reputation in this ugly, unphilosophical,

lion-hunting centre of the universe.”

While his lectures were still in course of delivery, he

entered the Athenaeum Club (28th January 1845), under

circumstances of a peculiarly gratifying kind. Without

reference to the date of his proposal, he was, on the

strong recommendation of Professor Owen, specially

elected by the committee, and this highly honourable

admission, or “ short cut,” as he called it, was due in


great measure to the publication of his York paper on

the morphology of the Sertularian zoophyte.

The subject of this paper also furnished material for

one of the Friday evening discourses at the Royal In-

stitution (14th February), which he had undertaken to

give, in addition to the course of lectures, to the mem-

bers of the same Association. Of the latter series, the

last lecture was written on the 11th of March. The

letter to Mr. Thompson, in which he mentions it, gives a

picture of his daily life at this time :

—“ Yesterday was

taken up with my last lecture at the Royal Institution,

which I began, concluded, and ended during the day ;

and from the exciting nature of the subject, was unfit

for even reading a newspaper afterwards. To-day I

have only one hour to spare, which hour must be taken

up answering some eight letters accumulated during the

last week, one of them your own. In half-an-hour’s

time I have to attend Sir Henry on Survey matters,

which will last till three o’clock;three to six, Geological

Council (matters of consequence that must not be

missed);the rest of the evening with Geological Society,

and dinner-time;snatching half-an-hour between eight

and nine to see the drawings at the ‘ Graphic/

“ I cannot and dare not work in the evening, and

am far too anxious and busy at present for my bodily

welfare. All I can do I can’t get right, nor will, until I

have a long run in the country. Three days a week,

and half of every day, I am not hi a fit state for workof any kind, and can only hope. My chief objects at

present are, to get the Lycicc out, to watch the progress

2 B

38G MEMOIR OP CHAP. XII.

of the Survey arrangements, and assist He la Beclie, to

get out my remaining papers formerly read at the Geo-

logical Society, and to get my botanical lectures over,

and to keep awake till they are finished. The “ ZEgean

Zoology ” is at a stand-still. Without room to lay out

the specimens in consumable order, or time to study

them, or my own way about their publication, it is a

cheerless task, and unless I can do it well, which I could

if I had leisure, I have no wish to do it at all. I feel

almost vexed now that the grant was applied for or

given.”

The contest with bodily pain and debility to which

he alludes in this letter, sometimes nearly paralysed all

mental exertion. His first lecture, for instance, he re-

garded as such a failure, that “ illness only could excuse

it.” Moreover, to physical weakness was still added

anxiety regarding his famdy. “Had I foreseen,” he

bitterly exclaims, “ the torrent of misfortunes which has

poured on my family, I should have taken some other

course in life that might have enabled me to assist

them, which science is not very likely to do, though all

very well for one’s-self.” Yet from these depressing

thoughts he could pass rapidly into a lighter mood;

grave and gay alternated with him as often and as

naturally as light and shadow athwart an April land-

scape, and in the brighter intervals his spirits often

found their vent in song. It was during one of these

moments that he wrote this spring a Palaeontologists

Valentine.


VALENTINE.1

BY A PALAEONTOLOGIST.

Borne upon Pterodactyle’s wing,

This heart, which once you deemed of stone,

Model of maids, to thee I bring,

And offer it to thee alone !

Not Owen, pondering o’er hone

Of great Dinornis, fonder grew

Of mighty wingless birds unknown,

Than I, sweet maid, of you.

The Glyptodon, which Darwin found

Beside the South Atlantic main,

Was in no harder armour hound,

Than that my spirit did enchain;

Till, hade by thee, Love rent in twain

The fetters which my fancy tied

To boulder, glacier, and moraine,

And bore me to thy side

!

Like some fantastic Trilobite

That perished in Silurian sea,

And long lay hid from mortal sight,

So was the heart I yield to thee.

Now from its stony matrix free,

Thy palasontologic skill

Once more hath call’d it forth to he

The servant of thy will.

Geological Society, Feb. 14.

He refers to this song in a letter to Mr. Thompson.

“ Look at last Literary Gazette,” he says, “ for a song of

mine. Buckland amusingly enough quoted it in full at

the geological anniversary dinner yesterday, not know-

ing the author. De la Beche afterwards, in returning

thanks for the Survey, wickedly proclaimed that it came

from our staff, and urged it as a proof that any sort of

article could be produced in the Museum of Economic

Geology.”

The “ Universal Brotherhood,” as we have seen, still

1 From the Literary Gazette.


lived, and those brethren who were resident in London

met on the 9 th of March to celebrate the anniversary of

the Order. The “ Red Lions” too had some merry even-

ings this spring, continuing to add to their numbers, and

not unfrequently welcoming to their board those “ Asso-

ciation Lions” from the provinces who happened to be in

London at the time. The evening of the 17th April is

especially chronicled as one of the most thoroughly en-

joyed in the long history of the club. They met at the

“ Cheshire Cheese” in Fleet Street, twenty in number,

including Owen, Goodsir, Falconer, Forbes, A. C. Ramsay,

Captain James, Morris, Francis, Jerdan, Cook Taylor,

Richard Taylor, Tulk, Henry, Henfrey, Busk, Water-

house, Playfair, and Chambers.

The spring months wore away, and May brought

round again the lectures at King’s College. These were

not over when the British Association met at Cambridge

in July, two months earlier than usual. Forbes attended

the meeting, however, and lodged with a merry party at

Jesus College. “I go up,” so he wrote to Dr. Percy,

“ with a paper on the geographical distribution of local

plants, a very curious subject which will take many people

by surprise. I am prepared to show that the present

flora of Great Britain originated in at least four distinct

geological epochs.” He also read at this meeting,

“ Notices of Natural History Observations bearing on

Geology.” The first paper formed the groundwork of

his memoir on the same subject published the next spiing

in the first volume of the Memoirs of the Geological Sui-

vey. It formed, too, an epoch in geological speculation,

and in its completed form, is unquestionably one of the

1845. EDWA.RD FORBES. 389

most masterly, as well as beautiful generalizations to be

found in the whole range of British scientific literature.

The “ Red Lions” met as usual every day during the

meeting.

Forbes now left London to enjoy some weeks of cruis-

ing and dredging hi the far North. We have seen in a

previous chapter, that when during his residence in Edin-

burgh he visited the Shetlands, he found so much to

interest him, that at the end of his notes he added “ N. B.

Must go back to Shetland.” Since that time six years

had rolled away;in the interval, the struggle to obtain

a lectureship in Scotland, the cruisings in the iEgean,

and the two weary years at the Geological Society, had

|)me and gone, and the enthusiastic student had merged

into the equally enthusiastic, but much harder-worked

professor. He gladly availed himself now of the oppor-

tunity of revisiting the northern extremity of the king-

dom. Starting about the middle of July, he arrived at

Lerwick, and found there awaiting his arrival, Mr. Mac-

andrew of Liverpool, who had come in his yacht by the

West Coast, dipping his dredge here and there by the waywith no little success. One object our naturalist had in

view in this voyage was to familiarize himself with the sea-

weeds, especially with their distribution in definite zones

of depth. But of course, the chief portion of the time was

occupied in dredging. Among the results of the first fort-

night he enumerates twenty new species of medusse, all

of which he carefully sketched and described at the time

;

two or three new molluscs, and two new echinoderms.

One of the most interesting features of the excursion wasthe discovery of several living molluscs, which had up to


that time only been known in a fossil state, associated, in

the pleistocene beds of the Clyde and elsewhere, withnorthern shells.

h rom the Shetlands the naturalists cruised south-west

among the Hebrides, dredging in the deep kyles andlochs that indent these wild western shores. By the

middle of August they had dropped into the Bay of Oban,

whence they made for Loch Fyne, spending two success-

ful days there with the dredge, and eliciting some curious

and new facts regarding the physiology of the berde. It

was the beginning of September before Forbes returned

to London. He had no sooner arrived there, however,

than he received instructions to join Sir Henry de la

Beche in Ireland, to assist in the determination of th<^

rocks of Hook Point, Wexford.

Sir Henry’s enthusiasm and activity were at this

time fully equal to those of his staff. Often he was

ready for work by dawn, and did not drop hammer till

dusk. The excitement of detecting new fossils, and

recognising old ones, of eliciting the grand physical

structure of the country, and disentangling the intricacy

of its details, kept the party busily at work. The fresh-

ness of out-door labour, by breathing new life and

heartiness into their spirits, braced them for physical

exertion. No company, indeed, was likely to lack life

when De la Beche and Forbes were members of it.

They threw a charm round their work, even in its dullest

parts, that stimulated their colleagues, and again react-

ing on themselves, kept the party in perpetual activity

and good humour. The evenings, too, after the walking

and hammering of the day were done, passed merrily


away by the fireside of some cabin or village inn, Forbes

chanting some of his humorous scientific songs, or in-

scribing them on sheets of foolscap, with gnomes, fairies,

and other quaint devices along the margin.

Very pleasant, therefore, were these days in Wex-

ford. They had but one annoyance, but it was so serious

as almost to outweigh the pleasure. They allowed of no

time for anything save the work of the Survey, so that,

in the midst of his enjoyment, Forbes found his thoughts

reverting to the iEgean stores, still untouched, and to

the notes of travel in Lycia, which had been sent to him

by Lieutenant Spratt, with a view to publication, but

which he had been able to do little more than begin.

The long hours of Sir Henry only permitted a page or

two to be done every day, a rate of progress that pro-

mised to keep the book many months in preparation.

“ I fear,” he writes to Mr. Thompson (17th September),

“ this survey, however pleasant, will never admit of

other pursuits than its own.”

After an absence of about a month, he returned to

London to begin the work of the winter. To Mr.

Thompson, he writes :—

“ Nov. 15.—Sir Henry is out of town, and I amavailing myself of his absence to get on with the ‘ Lycia/

i.e., getting three hours every morning for the work.

But as I can only write when I am in the humour, and

am abominably sulky and gloomy at the hopelessness of

working science in this clerk-like system of ten to four

every day—no time for thought, reading, writing, or

travelling—I am in the humour very seldom, and can

do nothing. I feel like a bird in a cage, and sing out

392 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XII.

from pure vexation. I begin to think science all hum-bug, and think, almost with fear, on the habit I amgetting into of rejoicing when office-hours are over. Asto the TEgean researches being worked out, it was a

pleasant dream while it lasted. People without inde-

pendence have no business to meddle with science. It

should never be linked with lucre/’

These fits of despondency either prognosticated or

induced an illness, which began about the middle of

December, and confined him to his room for six weeks.

Nephritic ailments had been hereditary in his family,

and it was found that with him also the same organs

were unsound. The illness began by derangement of

the kidneys, which increased to suppuration, produced

by the presence of a crystalline deposit. The process of

cure, by cupping and blistering, with the accompanying

low diet, sadly reduced the strength of a frame that had

never much to lose. Work, too, was strictly forbidden

;

and so, while the printers waited for the sheets of the

Lycian travels, and the Geological Survey for his indis-

pensable assistance in the determination of fossils, he

had to lie in bed, or, when able, sit by the fireside,

reading Clarendon and writing letters. It was but

natural that the letters should be fretful. He draws

gloomy pictures of the future, how his days of book-

making are over, and how nothing in the literary way

remains to him, save the hope of perhaps now and then

throwing off a squib or song, all chance of ever working

out his researches has gone, and no prospect stretches

out before him, save one long and dreary pathway of

uncongenial toil and drudgery, ending he knows not


when, and cares not how. But in all this he had more

than the mere sick man’s plea, and he attempts to justify

his repinings in a letter to Mr. Thompson :—

“Dec. 29,1845 .

—I write this scrawl from my bed,

in which I have spent my Christmas. I have had a

very unpleasant attack of illness, but hope I am now

getting over it.

“ In your last you chided my discontent, but mistook

the cause. I am not despondent though discontented

about income;that at present is as much or more than

I had a right to look for, but because as long as I hold

my present office—which I must, to exist—there is no

chance of my doing any of the work which I had chalked

out for myself. All my AEgean material must go for

nothing, and as to my literary prospects, they must be

consigned to the tomb of all the Capulets. I find every

day that in these Government clerkships they would

rather make one idle the time than do anything not

official. One is no longer a free agent, but a (well-used)

slave. If things went better with my unfortunate

family I would brave all chances, but must not for the

sake of others.”

Again,—“ 12th January 1846 .

—

The plain fact is

that I have no chance of doing any of m}' own work as

long as I am connected with the Survey. The Edin-

burgh Chair of Natural History is the only outlet of

escape I can see, and I have warnings that I must keep

my eye open to that quarter, probably very soon. I

have, however, very little hope, for those who wish meto remain here, will, I feel sure, not aid my departure.

However, I shall make an effort;the more so because

394 MEMOIR OE CHAP. XII.

the complaint which now tortures me is one, the return

and intensity of which will depend much on ease of

mind and freedom from pressure of work.”

After the lapse of six weeks he began to go out of

doors for a short time every day, and by degrees re-

covered sufficiently to attend once more at Craig’s Court,

but it was long before he had resumed his wonted

measure of health;

all the rest of the spring and summer

he complained of pain and weakness, and though these

wore away, the effects of this illness are traceable

through the remainder of his life, and it was a return of

the same disease which ultimately carried him to the

grave.

By the 27th of February, he had gained strength

enough to resume his place as a lecturer at the Royal

Institution. On March 9th, he writes to Mr. Thompson,

—“ The lecture was a brief abridgment of one of my

Survey reports— £ On the relation of the existing fauna

and flora of Britain to the later geological changes, and

especially to the epoch of the northern drift.’ One half of

this is now in the press, and I am hard at work at the

rest. Though the father of it myself, I will say that this

paper will change, nay, revolutionize the whole subject

of the geography of botany and zoology, or rather, will

be the herald of such a change.

“ The first vol. of£ Lycia’ is now printed, and the

second is in the press.”

March 28th.

—

££I am getting stronger, and I trust

better, but this weather, and the overpress of work (now

to last till middle of July) sadly impede a fair recovery.

I don’t half like my bodily condition. I take every care,

i) 1846. EDWARD FORBES. 395

i drink water, eat by rule, and rarely go out at night,

but the real remedies, leisure and country air, are not to

$ be had.

“My Report for the Survey still goes on, and will

: be a coup d’ceil of the history of the British flora and

j fauna of a very novel kind. De la Beche fortunately has

!. taken an interest in it, and lets me write it partly at my) rooms. The printers are behind with ‘ Lycia/ not I.

“I have just terrified the geologists by maintaining

at their meeting that identity of fossils in strata geo-

^ graphically far apart, must lead to the inference that the

j beds were of different, not, as hitherto maintained, of

a the same age.”

Two days after this letter was written, viz., on the

a evening of Monday, March 30 th, he gave the first of a

r. series of six lectures to the members of the London

if Institution, “ On the Geographical and Geological Dis-

d tribution of Organized Beings.” The general nature of

these lectures may be gathered from the subjoined list of

C them titles :

—

“ I. On the Geographical Distribution of Existing Land Animalsj and Plants.

I

II. On the Geographical Distribution of Existing Aquatic Animalsand Plants.

“ HI- On the Geological Distribution of Organized Beings during the

more ancient Epochs.

“ IV. On the Distribution of Organized Beings during the later geo-logical periods.

“V. On the History and Origin of the existing Animals and Plantsof the British Islands.

“ VI. Conclusions resulting from a Comparative View of the Distri-bution of existing and extinct Animals and Plants.”

The last lecture of the series was given on the 4th of


May, and then came the botanical course at King’s Col-

lege. This constant lecturing tasked his strength not a

little, and it was with an inexpressible sense of relief,

that about the middle of July he found himself free to

leave London. Before doing so, however, he had the

satisfaction of completing his great paper “ On the con-j

nexion between the distribution of the existing Fauna

and Flora of the British Isles, and the Geological changes

which have affected their area, especially during the epoch

of the Northern Drift.”

In addition to this long and elaborate Memoir, the

last chapter of“ Lycia” was also completed. Forbes had

thus written this spring, in addition to other duties, a

memoir of one hundred closely printed pages of whollyj

original matter;and had prepared for the press two

octavo volumes containing, among lighter subjects, much

careful scientific writing. A few weeks of rest were

thus needed, and he hastened to enjoy them.

Mr. Macandrew had invited him to a dredging cruise

between Liverpool and Southampton, and as the Asso-

ciation was to meet this year at the latter locality, he

resolved to accept the invitation. To Mr. Ramsay, his

intimate friend and colleague in the Survey, he writes,

23d July 1846 :—

“ Dear Ramsay,—I am in a fix in so many ways,

that I am doubtful about how to arrange. My lectures

are just over, but I have not yet succeeded in getting

the printer to push the Lycian Travels through the press.

They are delaying over Greek inscriptions, and the delays \

have been so long and vexatious, that I will not move

till it is through. A week, however, will tell how it


advances. There are only fifty pages of it more to print.

The writing was done long ago.

“ On the other hand, the Geological Society people

are pressing me about the Pondicherry Report, which is

now ordered to be printed.

“ Thirdly, Macandrew has written to me offering to

take me round from Liverpool to Southampton after the

10th in his yacht. A part of this sail I am resolved to

go with him, as it will give me an opportunity of exa-

mining the sea-bottom between Wales and the Land s

End, an opportunity not to be neglected for our own

after-work. In a few days, however, I will have seen

my way clearer through my work, and will write again.

The clearing away of the ‘ Lycia’ and the Geological

Report will ease my mind a good deal, and leave me

freer.”

Again to the same friend :—

“ I must delay joining you till after the Meeting,

now that I see plainly I cannot get away from this be-

fore the week after next. Macandrew has then offered

to take me in his yacht on a cruise round the Land’s

End to Southampton. The observations during such a

cruise would complete much I have in hand, and add

greatly to the stock of information required for working

out our own fossils. But this is not the main reason for

my going. My complaints still linger about me, and I

feel sundry twitches daily that give me some alarm,

besides which I am very evidently not as well as I ought

S

to be. The first point with me, according to my medical

friends, is to get pure air without much exercise. This

I can get on board Mr. Macandrew’s yacht, which move


they strongly recommend. Once a little pulled up, I

must combine the exercise with the air, and keep out of

London as much as possible through the autumn. Join-

ing you, and getting clear work with you, will be best

for this, and such I propose to do after the Meeting.

But in order to do tills, I must clear off all I have linger-

ing on my hands here, and this detains me. 1st, I must

draught out a series of work for Bone and Baily. 1 (This

is now nearly done.) 2d, I must see the last sheets of

the book on Lycia through the press. (This, I am happy

to say, is also nearly done.) 2>d, I must see the Pondi-

cherry Report in hand at the Geological. 4th, I must

give in Burmeister corrected to the Ray 2 Society : so

you see that I have a precious press of work, not by any

means easy in this broiling weather. Sir Henry approves

of my moves.”

The work was accomplished in time to give him a

1 Two of the artists employed in the this word. He once ended a letter by

Geological Survey. subscribing himself—2 Forbes had a characteristic pun on

“ A Member of the Ray Club.”

184 G. EDWARD FORBES. 399

week or two on the Atlantic previous to the meeting of

the Association. Just before starting, he wrote, “ I am

beating up for papers, etc., for the Southampton meeting,

in order to keep up the credit and spirit of the natural

history section, which at present promises well. I have

hopes, too, of having persuaded a brace of active physio-

logists and new hands to join the desolate Section E.”

The change from the atmosphere of London, charged

with all the heat and stench of midsummer, to the free,

fresh breezes of the Cornish coast, soon revived him. He

had got rid of his pen, too, for a time, and had taken in

its place the dredge, a not less familiar instrument. And

so forgetting all the din and turmoil that were left behind,

he launched with new zest into his old seafaring habits

;

dredged and sketched by turns, or, perchance, lay idly

on the deck watching the gulls that wheeled in circles

above him, and the ripples that kept lapping against the

bulwarks below.

Putting into Dartmouth, he wrote to his ever-kind

friend, Sir Roderick Murchison (who this year was to

take the presidency of the Association) :—“ I am now on

my way to Southampton, dredging the sea between the

Land’s End and Southampton, and hope to bring up not

a few novelties and interesting creatures, alive” Hesent at the same time some valuable remarks upon the

impetus which he conceived the Association had given

to the progress of natural history researches. The As-

sociation having been made the subject of bitter sarcasm

and ignorant abuse by certain writers in the Times, Sir

Roderick was anxious to show, by actual facts, that it

had done good service in many ways. In this desire


Forbes cordially concurred, furnishing copious notes, in

which the labours of his contemporaries were most

generously narrated. After the meeting, too, he con-

tinued his exertions, aiding in the preparation of an

article in the Morning Herald, by one who had recently

been among the most powerful contributors to the

Times. Referring to the end of the whole controversy,

he remarks to Sir Roderick, “ It is some consolation to

know that the buffoon who wrote the miserable attacks

in the Times is conscious of his failure, and that his

employers are enraged at them defeat. It was left for

the weakest of all the Thunderer’s myrmidons to con-

duct the attack;the best men would have nothing to

do with it. Even Punch grew ashamed of the folly of a

crusade against science, and the few weak squibs which

appeared in its pages were without doubt from the same

hand with the heavy Times leaders. One of the most

powerful of the wits was so disgusted at the proposition

of an attack, that he immediately wrote an article in

favour in the Daihy News. The Association never gained

more friends than through this campaign of the Times,

conducted by a jesting puppet, whose strings were

pulled by sneering and pseudo-scientific humbugs.”

At the Southampton meeting Forbes read—

1. On the Pulmograde Medusae of the British Seas.

2. On the localities and geological features of the

Isle of Wight.

3. Notices of Natural History observations, made

since last Meeting, bearing upon Geology.

On his return to London, he wrote to Mr. Ramsay,

29th September :

—“ We missed you at the meeting when


the Lions had great fun, as 1 shall tell you when we

meet. My cruise did me much good, but I must be

very careful about wet and cold this winter, for some

awkward symptoms yet remain.” He had arranged to

go down to the Survey in Wales, and accordingly, on

the 14th of October, he joined Professor Ramsay, Mr.

Jukes, and Mr. Aveline, at Bala.

Sir Henry de la Beche, for the first few days, formed

one of the party. When he left, the surveyors settled

down to unravel the complicated geological structure of

that beautiful locality, each taking his own area, while

Forbes assisted them in turn as they required palaeon-

tological aid. They were all young, and all enthusiastic;

their constant exercise in the open air gave them good

appetites and excellent spirits;the interest and excite-

ment of their work drove away all care and anxiety;

their common labours and common sympathies bound

them pleasantly together, and this bond was rendered all

the closer by that marked endearing influence which, as

we have seen, Forbes had from his boyhood exercised on

his comrades. Thus united, they found the gloomy days

of a dark October wear quickly away. Much of the

weather, indeed, proved too gloomy for Forbes to ven-

ture far among the hills. During such intervals of con-

finement, he employed himself in-doors among the fossils

from the Silurian rocks of the district, brought to him

chiefly by the excellent and indefatigable Richard Gibbs,

the fossil-collector to the Survey. When he climbed the

mountains, it was after a fashion wholly his own. Wrap-ping himself in an old plaid of the Forbes tartan (green

and black), lie would stalk up the steepest slopes with


the greatest ease and unconcern. When it rained (and

rain had been sufficiently abundant that autumn), he

would crouch beneath a wall or a boulder, and, throwing

his plaid entirely over his body, sit with nothing visible

but the point of his nose protruding from between the

muffled knees. The motionless figure looked somewhat

like a gigantic dirty green toadstool, or, if he showed

more of his face, and perhaps pushed out his long bony

fingers, it had a weird, uncanny look, which a stranger

even of strong nerves would have hardly cared to en-

counter alone on a wild mountain side, and which would

certainly have terrified to death any luckless Welshman,

and so have given the mountain a bad name for the next

generation. The litheness of his body at this time was

altogether surprising. Separating his feet, he could sit

down between them, and then twisting his arms through

his legs, bring his knees over his shoulders. In this

position he walked upon his hands, with his face peeping

comically from between his legs, like some of the elvish

forms that he loved so much to design.

The close of the day brought the several parties home

to their common rendezvous in the little town of Bala.

After dinner, when the notes of the day had been ad-

justed and compared, the hour or two before bed-time

(for they all went early to sleep), were passed in easy

chat over the evening pipe. Forbes was never a great

smoker, and now, unable to keep pace with his friends,

he preferred to seize a brush and colour-box, and illus-

trate with fays, gnomes, and elves, entwined in wavy

wreaths, some of his own humorous or anacreontic

effusions, throwing out, in the meanwhile however, quip

—

~

„

1S4S. EDWARD FORBES. 403

and jest and fun, or telling over, with great glee, some

of his adventures in the East.

These weeks of rest and gentle excitement sent

Forbes back to the metropolis with body and mind alike

refreshed. He returned on the 14th of November, in

time to take part in an application to Government,

relative to the grant of £500 for the publication of the

AEgean researches. When this grant was given, Sir

Robert Peel had unthinkingly handed it over to the

charge of the Stationery Office, and poor Forbes found

that in place of getting the sum which had been uncon-

ditionally given, to dispose of as he judged best, the

entire printing and engraving had been taken out of his

control, and engravers fixed on of whom he had never

heard. To bring out, under these conditions, such a

work as he designed, was of course hopelessly impracti-

cable, and hence one cause of his low spirits during the

preceding winter. While still at Bala, the controversy

with the Stationery Office was renewed, by the urgent

appeal of Sir Roderick Murchison and Colonel Sabine

representing to Government how injuriously the restric-

tions of that department were operating. They requested

a statement of his views from Forbes, who sent in reply

what he thought a fair report, possibly rather strongly

expressed, though he wrote at the time that he did not

see how he could have said less, without seeming to be

afraid of the revenge of the Stationery Office, even

though that Office could effectually cripple the palaeon-

tologist of the Survey in his publications.

When he reached town, long meetings and audiences

took the place of indignant letters. The end of the


question, however, was the decision of the Treasury in

his favour. The sum was left to be disposed of accord-

ing to his own plan, and all arrangements about printing

and engraving remained entirely at his discretion.

The money thus granted, and all the material ready

for arrangement and study, nothing further was needed

save leisure to carry on the work. But, unfortunately

for Edward Forbes, and still more unfortunately for

science, this needed leisure never came. Through the

remaining years of his connexion with the Geological

Survey, other engagements pressed upon him, and when

at last he gained the natural history chair of Edinburgh,

and began to prepare for the elaboration of the vast

mass of scientific material collected in the East and else-

where, he was cut off in his prime, and his wide and

varied knowledge, to a large extent, died with him.

It formed part of his plans for this winter to visit

Edinburgh. One of his chief reasons was to take such

steps upon the spot as might be necessary for promoting

his election to the chair of natural history there. Pro-

fessor Jameson had been ailing for some time, and had

latterly become too weak to continue his lectures, which

were temporarily read for him by one of his colleagues.

Already several candidates had begun to stir, and the

contest seemed likely to be a keen one. Forbes’s good

feeling, however, led him very soon to abandon the idea

of visiting Edinburgh for such a purpose, so long as his

old master lived. He contented himself with the active

co-operation of his friends in the north, who constantly

apprised him of every change of probabilities, and of all

the movements of those who had either professed them-

EDWARD FORBES. 4051S46.

selves his rivals, or seemed likely to do so. His great

fear at this time was that the chair would be divided ;

and as there appeared to be no hope that Government

would endow either of the severed portions, his prospects

of a life of congenial work in the north, ran some risk of

being now finally dashed to the ground. “ If I leave

London,” he said, “ it must be for good;and I cannot

leave it for a mere student’s income.”

The division of the Edinburgh Chair, which Forbes

contemplated with so much disfavour, was one which

would have greatly marred the usefulness of the chair,

and impeded the progress of natural history. It was

proposed to separate the Museum from the professorship,

and place it under a distinct superintendent. In this

way, a powerful element of discord could hardly have

failed to be introduced into the teaching of natural his-

tory, and the freedom, as well as the dignity of the pro-

fessor would have been impaired in a most essential

part. That the chair needed a division of another kind,

however, was only too evident. The lectureship em-

braced not merely natural history proper, but geology,

palaeontology, and mineralogy,—a range of acquirements

i far beyond the compass of most men, and assuredly

much too wide to be treated, with any approach to ful-

: ness, in the curriculum of a single session. A proposi-

tion to divide it, so as to allow the purely natural

i history portion to be undertaken by one man, and the

1

geological part by another, was therefore a wise and

liberal one, and it would have been well for the Univer-

sity could the Government of the day have been per-

i suaded to carry it into effect. But to divide the existing

40G MEMOIR OE CHAP. XII.

chair, with no pecuniary resources save the class fees,

would have been a truly suicidal policy. Forbes, know-ing the temper of the Government, protested against

the scision, and had fully resolved, if it were carried out,

to relinquish at once and for ever his design to form a

great school in Edinburgh.

There was another reason for deferring his trip to

Scotland, the death of his grandmother in the Isle of

Man. But he must be allowed to state it in his own

way. To Mr. Thompson he wrote :

—“ Family affairs

demand my presence in the Isle of Man to-morrow

week, so I will go to Liverpool to work a day with

Macandrew, and one with Price, on Saturday next. I

go to see if there be any chance of saving any of myfields, for in the Manx Almanac I figure as proprietor of

three or four estates. I fear, however, that I can’t pre-

serve even a pig-stye, having no money to pay off mort-

gages. Still, for the sake of my brothers, I must look

to matters, for I am now head of the family, since myfather, not bearing his reverses, has left his country for

good. All he left me was the parchment pedigree of

my grandfather, so that I am officially installed chief of

all the Manx Forbeses, who, I fear, unless better luck

attends them than has done, will become extinct, and

perhaps could not be so more appropriately than in the

person of a palaeontologist.”

On the 24th November, the travels in Lycia were

published, in two well-printed octavo volumes. The

joint shares which Lieutenant Spratt and Professor

Forbes had in this work, are sketched by the latter in a

letter to his friend, Captain Graves, to whom the book


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was dedicated. “ The introduction,'’ he says, “ is Spratt’s,

combined with an addition of my own, in the shape of

a short history of discovery in Lycia, which I inserted

for the benefit of the public, to show them what had

been done before Fellows’ time. It is gravely told, and

conceals nothing. The first chapter is entirely mine;

the remainder of the first volume is based on Spratt’s

;

indeed, mostly - his manuscript slightly altered. The

more important descriptions, and the anecdote parts, I

entirely re-wrote in my own fashion, in order that these

should be quotable parts. In the second volume, the

first chapter consists of my introduction, and notes to

poor Daniell’s last letter. The second is by Spratt,

very little altered. The natural history chapters are myown. The Greek inscription appendix was drawn up

by myself, acting under good advice, and not published

till submitted to competent persons. I drew the coins

under Sharpe’s eye.”

The work was received at the time in a manner

highly gratifying to the authors, and it has taken its

place as an authoritative text-book for the geography

and natural history of those regions of Asia Minor which

it describes.

The dedication of these volumes to Captain Graves,

formed only one of many ways which Forbes took to

express his regard for that able seaman and most excel-

lent man. His letters to his old commander are full of

the most affectionate feeling. Each of them tells of

some common friend whom he had seen, and to whomhe had given all the last news from the East, or of someinfluential circle in which he had mingled, perhaps with


a Lord of the Admiralty in its number, into whose ear

lie took good care to say a kind word for the “ Beacon ”

and its inmates. There had been not a little discussion,

too, in London circles, with regard to the doings of the“ Beacon,” when procuring the Xanthian marbles, and

the part which Commander Graves took in that expedi-

tion had been much misrepresented. His young natu-

ralist, however, proved himself a stanch ally, and stout

combatant in the Captain’s cause, doing much to counter-

act the sinister reports that had gone abroad;and

now, in the Lycian volumes, the name of Captain

Graves was placed in the front, followed by a generous

tribute to his services in the cause alike of science and

art, as well as to his unfailing kindness to the authors.

Forbes would not allow the old relation to disappear,

and delighted to regard himself as still one of the

“ Beacon’s ” crew, to whom, when he wrote to Captain

Graves, he used to send his best wishes, sometimes

mentioning five or six by name. Even by the naval

authorities, his connexion with the Eastern survey was

looked upon as not wholly severed. “ I am still re-

garded as your old naturalist,” he wrote to Graves,

“ and am consulted about all new expeditions.”

The visit to the Isle of Man did not finally settle

family matters there, though, in the end, part of the pro-

perty was secured. Forbes returned to London about

the 8th of January (1847), and found a series of bulletins

from his friends in Edinburgh, reporting all the varia-

tions in the aspect of affairs.

Professor Jameson was still ill, but not worse than

he had been, and there seemed little probability either


i that he would voluntarily resign his appointment, or that

illness and inability would compel him to do so. On

the 13th of January, Forbes writes to Mr. Thompson :

—“ I send you a fresh note from Balfour, received this

morning, which, I think, puts the true state of the case

so far as the Town-Council is concerned. I have no

doubt that my interest is well attended to by B. and

Goodsir. I do not think it advisable to go to Edinburgh

!

at present. Matters are not ripe enough to run the risk

of being out of the way from here. I could not go

without permission, and do not feel so sanguine about

the Edinburgh chair as to risk what I have here yet.

I have, however, written to Horner, who has promptly,

and with all his energetic kindness, written to Lord

i

Minto, the Lord Advocate, and Solicitor-General, and the

Lord Brovost, so that my intentions will be well known.

You will see that Fleming cannot act in ignorance of mymovements. If he comes forward, I dread my chance.

His claims for a Scotch chair, I freely admit to be before

mine, though I maintain lie is too old now for a pro-

fessorship. My hope lies in his honesty, for after resign-

ing a University chair for the Free Church, it would be

a memorable instance ofc

ratting*

if he quitted the Free

Church for a University chair. I have said nothing yet

to De la Beche, lest he should meddle either way in the

matter. He will be rather surprised at my wishing to

leave London. My doing so may do good to others, for

it will call attention to the state of scientific appoint-

ments in the Metropolis. Even supposing things at their

best here, the utmost I could look for would be a salary

of £500, for which my liberty, time, and comfort must


be entirely surrendered, and all prospect of working out

my researches put an end to. Such, however, I fear,

must be my fate, if I cannot get out of it. The more I

see, the more I am convinced that no man should take

up science as his profession unless he has some indepen-

dence to fall back upon. Had I £200 a year of my own,

the King’s College chair, with such an income in addition,

would be pleasant enough. But such cannot be. How-

ever, I hope before summer that my course, one way or

other, will be settled, for I cannot work with comfort to

myself or with justice to my task, till I am more settled

in mind and body than I now am.”

Ten days later, he writes again of the exertions of

his friends, and adds,—“ For my own part I am anything

but sanguine, but, of course, will make a struggle for it.

I wish it were settled either one way or other, for with

the consciousness that I can do nothing effectual in mypresent position, and the doubt of ever getting a better,

I feel and fear a tendency to grow indifferent to science.”

On February 4th, he wrote to Captain Graves :—

“ I go to Ireland on Survey duty next week, and hope

to see your brother and Thompson;Patterson, perhaps,

also. Things are in a sad way there;people dying on

all sides, of starvation. After having seen such a country

as Asia Minor in great part uncultivated, yet capable of

growing corn for half the world, it is terrible to think

of death by starvation when there are such means

neglected of preventing it.

“ I am hard at work;perhaps too much so still. But

there is a prospect of Jameson resigning the Edinburgh

chair this summer, and I am, consequently, very sharp on


X

*

1

5

$

u

7

the look-out. If 1 get it, it is not impossible some autumn

day may find me at your side in the Archipelago ;as,

once in that chair, the working-out in full, and in famous

form, of the natural history researches in the ‘ Beacon’

will become my chief task, and I will then have plenty

of time for it. As it is, I get no rest, but am stoned

to death by fossils. My health, however, is, though not

all right, much better than it was last winter.”

All the well-laid schemes of the candidates were in

a few weeks frustrated, for the veteran naturalist at

Edinburgh neither died nor resigned, but rallied from

his illness, and kept his professorship for seven years

after.

While these and other letters on the same subject

were passing to and fro, an event occurred in London

of some interest in its relation to Edward Forbes, and

of considerable importance in the history of the Geo-

logical Survey. The members of the Survey met

together in the Imperial Hotel, Covent Garden, on the

25th of January, and there entertained their chief, Sir

Henry de la Beche, at dinner. Professor Ramsay took

the chair, and the company consisted of the staff of the

Survey and Museum, along with one or two men of

science who had been conjoined with them in part of

their work. The evening passed very pleasantly awayin joke and song and humorous speech. Such social

interchange of thought and feeling served to bind the

staff firmer together, and unite them more closely to

their chief, and it was then resolved that every year

thereafter the Survey should hold its anniversary dinner,

with Sir Henry as perpetual chairman. Forbes and

412 MEM01E OF CHAP. XII.

others used to write serio-comic scientific songs for the

occasion, and these were inscribed in the album of“ The Royal Hammerers.” The pages of this volume

are adorned with sketches by Sir Henry himself; Forbes

wrote out some of his songs in it, with borders of funny

elves and gnomes, and creatures that never existed save

in his own fertile imagination. These dinners are still

part of the established institutions of the Survey,—and

long may they continue so.

A few days after this dinner (viz., on February 3d),

another incident occurred to show how casually our

clubs and societies are sometimes formed. At a meeting

of the Geological Society a discussion ensued upon a

paper by Mr. Prestwich on the Tertiaries of the London

and Hampshire Basins. Forbes, in the course of his

speech, remarked with regret how much information

ou this subject lay scattered in different books and

periodicals. Mr. Bowerbank followed, and, on the spur

of the moment, suggested the establishment of a Tertiary

Publishing Society. The idea immediately found favour,

and afterwards, at tea down stairs, it was expanded into

a proposition to found a society for publishing plates

of fossils, not from the Tertiary deposits only, but from

all the British formations. Tins was the origin of the

Palseontographical Society.

Early in March the Palaeontologist of the Survey

began his tour of inspection in Ireland. He had much

to see there, not only for clearing up obscure points in

the geology of that country, but as material to aid in

the explanation of part of Wales. After a series of

excursions he returned to Dublin, and wrote to Pro-


>•

fessor Ramsay:—“2 *lth March.—I returned last night

from my provincial tour. My work here so far has

been as follows :—1st, Unpacking and examining the

collections made since I was here before;this is still in

progress : 2d, Going north at the head of a great army

of fossil fish to Lord Enniskillen’s, in order to compare

and name them for the Report I am drawing up on the

Hook section fossils. This I did successfully, and could

not have done it without the aid of Lord E/s collection,

which is magnificent and in exquisite order. Then at

Florence Court, I went to seek out the localities for the

encrinite heads, which come over to England continually

without anybody knowing how they are found. This

I did. Also to examine the sections through the car-

boniferous series there, which are very complete, and to

work out pentremites, in order to understand better our

sphceronites

;

all which was satisfactorily done. I then

went to Armagh, and met Oldham there by appointment,

to go over the fish quarries, and observe them relation

to the Hook. Thence northwards to the Silurian district

of Pomeroy, to bottle up knowledge for our Welsh re-

ports;satisfactory also. Yesterday we got back. All

this was out of the area at present under survey;but

it is in vain to write and print on districts till the

outlying places which afford keys to geological secrets

be looked to. Hence I hope Sir Hemy will consider

my tour justifiable.”

“ 51, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, ist April 1847.

“ Dear Wilson,—Your very welcome letter andpoem (which I admire much, but will write fuller


comments on very soon) had to travel some way before

they found me, for 1 have been three weeks in Ireland,

and most of the time in the interior, on geological duty.

The sight of your handwriting made me ashamed of myneglect in not writing to you for so long, as I ought to

have done;but now putting off writing from want of

leisure, at another time from want of spirits, and at a

third from hopes of seeing you in person, and having

the delight of conversing, have successively prevented

me answering the letters both of you and of other very

dear friends.

“ My health is much better than it was, and could I

have rest and time to think and read (and write also),

I am sure it would come quite round again. The vexa

tion of incessantly being obliged to write imperfect

work annoys and frets me. If Jameson retires, I shall

make a desperate effort to get amongst you again, as in

that lies almost the only hope I have of working out the

heap of material I have accumulated, and the philan-

thropic views which I hope I may never abandon.

Next screed shall be anent poetry, and soon. Ever, dear

Wilson, your affectionate friend andfrater,


“ I am in a land of misery and tears at present, hence

the dull tone of this short note.”

A “ screed anent poetry” was, with Forbes, a favourite

form of correspondence. As, perhaps, the most interest-

ing specimen he has left, the following letter to Mr.

Patterson may be appropriately quoted here :—

“ Dear Patterson,—Anent your notion about the

r

1847. EDWARD FORBES. “*10

connexion of natural history and poetry, I here put down

a few sentences. Morren of Liege has lately published

a volume of poems which I have not as yet seen, but 1

am told that in the preface to the book he maintains

the identity of the naturalist and the poet, and of

their respective pursuits. You should see and get hold

Ej of this.

“ Now, here is my theory of the matter, jotted down

i rapidly and without sufficient forethought. Most natu-

s ralists, if not all, may be arranged under the following

( classes

:

—“ A.—Such as perceive analogies more vividly than

they do affinities.

“ B.—Such as perceive affinities and can define them,

/« but are weak in their perception of analogies.

“ Var. a.—Have scarcely any just perception of

analogy.

“ Var. b .—When analogies are pointed out to them,

perceive them readily if they be true.

“ C.—Such as remark differences without the power

of recognising whether they depend on the absence of

analogy or affinity.

“ D.—Such as having a vivid sympathy with the

beauty of natural objects, seek in the details or history of

those objects the gratification of that sympathy.

“ E.—Such as combine an apparently intuitive (really

logical) perception of analogy with the power of accurate

recognition of affinity, and both with the intuitive per-

ception of ideal form, = beauty. The greatest leading

minds belong to this class. There is a passage of this

class into B,—as there is also of A into D.

41G MEMOIR OF CHAP. XII.

EXAMPLES IN ILLUSTRATION.

“ A.—Oken, Swainson, and amongst literary men, Sir

Thomas Browne.

“B.—Ray? Yarrell, Jussieu, Richardson, Hooker,

Fleming.

“ C.—Gray, Klein, Gmelin.

“ D.—Waterton, Hugh Miller, Johnston? and among

poets, James Montgomery.

“ E.—Aristotle, Linnaeus, Robert Brown, Goethe.

“ Passage of B into E.—Cuvier, Owen, J. Goodsir,

Gaudichaud;Macleay leaning to A.

“ Now, the minds of class E are essentially poetic, or

rather in the highest degree aesthetic.

“ Those of A are not necessarily poetic or aesthetic,

but are sometimes so.

“ Those of D are poetic always, but not necessarily

aesthetic.

“ Those of B are rarely ever poetic, sometimes mode-

rately aesthetic.

“ Those of C are neither poetic nor aesthetic.

“ Those belonging to the transition between B and E

are usually highly aesthetic, though not poetic.

“ The power of throwing the thoughts into verse is,

with the naturalist, an accident, to whichever class he

may belong.

“ Such is my solution of the problem—-in trying to

unriddle which I have passed the last two hours, till now

I hear the clock strike one ! and ’tis bed-time. Being

this evening (in consequence of a slight degree of fever-

ishness which warns me to resort to pills and powders

r


ere next week begins) in a dreamy state, the preceding

two semi-metaphysical pages may be, I fear are, incom-

prehensible. So, if yon can’t make them out, you may

put them in the fire.”

On the same day on which he sent the last quoted

letter to Dr. Wilson, he wrote to Mr. Thompson that he

had been urged to give a lecture at the Royal Institution

during the spring. “ I have written that my subject

shall be ‘ The North Atlantic.’ In this case I will make

the lecture half on Loven’s researches confirmatory of

mine, and half upon the economic application of mywork, and the true way of inquiring into the fisheries.

This will give me an opportunity of trying to do Ball

that justice which he will not do himself.”

The lectures at King’s College were fixed to begin

this year, on the 28th of April, and Forbes returned to

prepare for them. He had no sooner arrived in London,

however, than he was ordered off to Devonshire, where

he vibrated for a week and a day between Axmouth and

<Lyme. Yet it was a week well spent, as he obtained,

i for the first time, a true notion of the Lias formation,

i On getting back to London, he wrote to Professor Ram-

i

say :—“ I regret quite as much as yourself that you and I

' did not meet at Lyme. Sir Henry recollected that it

) would have been better so, too late;in fact I left with

I him at a moment’s notice, and we had done our workthere almost as soon as we had breathing time. I hur-

ried away back on account of my college lectures which' now commence

;had it not been for them I would have

r joined you.

2 D


“My visit to Lyme gave me a thoroughly clear idea

of the Lias, and the succession of its fossils, which I

much wanted. I now can picture to myself all the

events of its formation. At the base of it 1 saw the so- ,

called White Lias, which, so far as I have seen, seems to

me to be essentially different from the lias, and possibly

the terminating strata of the triassic series. I broached

a notion to Sir Henry, from what I saw, that the red

marls were formed in a great salt inland sea (a sort of

Aralo-Caspian), during the last state of which the white

lias was formed;that the bed was then either elevated i

and converted into land, or depressed, and turned into a

part of the ocean, when the liassic fauna came in. This

notion is not merely hypothetical;

the fossils of the

white lias (very few in species) suggested the idea;they 1

are curiously representative of the existing Caspian

fauna. Such a state of things would account for the

general and hitherto almost unaccountable unfossiliferous

character of the Trias in our area, and for the extinction

of the last traces of palaeozoic fauna. Rest assured there

is something in this spec, like a clue, where a clue is

wanting. Much research, however, would be necessaryj

to work it out. I wish much that we could make a tour

of the coast sections of the south of England together.

It would be most instructive to both of us, and beneficial

to the Survey. If the governor went with us, so much

the better, as he knows the line.”

On May 14th, he lectured to the Royal Institution

“ On the Natural History features of the North Atlantic.”

In this lecture he pointed out the zoological regions into

which that part of the ocean is divisible, and the geo-


logical changes to which the present disposition of such

provinces is due. He referred also to the simultaneous

and independent observations of Professor Loven of

Stockholm, who had arrived at similar conclusions as to

the distribution of marine animals, and the nature of

those geological revolutions by which the different species

had gradually come to occupy their present areas. The

latter part of the lecture was employed in showing some

of the economical bearings of the subject. Forbes dwelt

especially on the conduct of deep-sea fisheries, and

showed that the results of scientific research had never,

in tins country, entered into any scheme for the ex-

tension and improvement of that part of our national

industry.

He refers to this lecture in a letter to Professor

Ramsay:—“On Friday night I lectured at the Royal

Institution. The subject was the bearing of submarine

researches and distribution matters on the fishery ques-

tion. I pitched into Government mismanagement pretty

strong, and made a fair case of it. It seems to me that

at a time when half the country is starving, we are

utterly neglecting, or grossly mismanaging great sources

of wealth and food. I have lately rummaged through

every document, official and non-official, that can be laid

hold of on this matter, and more wonderful blindness on1 the part of statesmen, etc., could not have been dis-

' covered. It happened that the night before my lecture

the question rose accidentally in the House, and Mini-' sters and members displayed as much ignorance of the• case as ever. Were I a rich man, I would make the

fsubject a hobby, for the good of the country, and for the

420 MEMOIR OF CHAP, XII.

better proving that the true interests of government are

those linked with and inseparable from science.

“ Sir Henry brought Phillips of the Woods with him,

and I had a fair sprinkling of political people present,

who have urged me to press the matter.”

Before the close of the botanical lectures at the

College, the British Association met at Oxford, and

Forbes went down to attend it. At this meeting his

papers were :

—

1. On the families of British Lamellibranchiate mol-

lusca ;—the object of this communication being to explain

the classification which he intended to adopt, in conjunc-

tion with Mr. Hanley, in the preparation of their work

on the British mollusca.

2. Notice of Dredging Besearches in progress.

The Bed Lions met as usual, and mustered strong

this year. On the 24th (the first day of the sectional

meetings), Forbes occupied the chair, and, on the 26th,

twenty-four of them went out to see Blenheim, twenty

stowing themselves into the inside and on the summit

of a stage-coach, while the remainder, who could not

find room, kept up with the main body in a phaeton.

One of the most memorable features of this meeting,

however, was the discussion in the Natural Histoiy

Section on the nature and relations of the extinct Dodo.

Forbes, though he did not take part in it, had, never-

theless, a lively interest in the controversy, and, some

weeks afterwards, he sent to the Literary Gazette a

long ornithological romance containing a humorous

account of the debate. The subjoined verses, which


have been quoted by Dr. Bennett, are the best in the

song :—

SONG OF THE DODO .1

Do-do ! although we can’t see him,

His picture is hung in the British Museum :

For the creature itself, we may judge what a loss it is,

When its claws and its bill are such great curiosities.

Do-do ! Do-do !

Ornithologists all have been puzzled by you.

Do-do ! Monsieur de Blainville,

Who hits very hard all the nails on his anvil,

Maintains that the bird was a vulture rapacious,

And neither a wader, nor else gallinaceous;

A do do ! a do-do,

And not a cock-a-doodle-doo !

Do-do ! John Edward Gray, sir,

Doubted what Mr. de Blainville did say, sir,

And held that the bird was a vile imposition,

And that the old Dutchman had seen but a vision

—

A do-do;a regular do !

And didn’t believe one word was true.

Do-do ! alas for our wisdom !

Strickland has come to the judgment; and his doom,

From a hole in the head, and a bone with a ridge on,

Is that our rara avis was only a pigeon

;

Our do-do, only a doo,

A regular doo, like a turtle-doo.

Do-do ! alas ! there are left us

No more remains of the Didus ineptus,

And so, in the progress of science, all prodigies

Must die, as the palm-trees will some day at Loddige’s,

And, like our wonderful do-do,

Turn out not worth the hullabaloo.

By the beginning of July, Forbes was back again to

London. On the evening of the 3d, the Metropolitan

Bed Lions gave a dinner to the Prince of Canino, and

other distinguished foreigners, Dutch, Danish, andRussian, who had been at the Association meeting.

Cook Taylor occupied the chair, with Forbes as vice,

1 He pronounced this word as doo-doo.


and tlie evening rolled merrily away. The northern

savcms went into the fun with great heartiness, but the

nephew of the First Napoleon appeared not quite to

understand the uproarious mirth of the men whom only

a few days before he had seen engaged in such grave

and earnest debate in the scientific assembly at Oxford.

The Kings College lectures ended on the 17th July,

and Forbes immediately left London for a few days.

Before starting he wrote to Belfast :

—“ My lectures

ended yesterday, and I mean to take a run out of town

to-morrow for a week, as a breathing excursion. I go

first to Lady Hastings, and then by Thursday or Friday

to James, to get a day’s dredging, and to look to two

or three common species of molluscs of whose animals

I am not quite sure. Since you left town I have got

my British shells and the bivalves of my TEgean col-

lection stuck on tablets and put in consultable order.

This will be a great step towards giving away duplicates

in future.”

He was now preparing for the early publication of

his great work, for which he had been amassing material

since his boyhood—the History of British Mollusca

—

the first pages of which were issued at the commence-

ment of the following year. His summer excursions,

when not purely geological in the service of the Survey,

had now a constant reference to the elaboration of that

work. Sometimes they were given to dredging, some-

times to the comparison of the shells in various cabinets

throughout the country, and sometimes to conference

with other labourers in the same field of science. In

such an undertaking his well-known geniality of nature,


and the universal friendship which it had won for him,

independently of his acknowledged permanent merits as

a naturalist, contributed not a little to his progress.

There was little jealousy excited by the announcement

that Edward Forbes was about to prepare a compre-

hensive history of the Mollusca of the British Seas. On

the contrary, he met with the most cordial assistance.

It was acknowledged that by none could the task have

been more fitly undertaken, and thus cabinets that

would have been closed against another were at once

thrown open to him. For four years the preparation

of this work occupied a large portion of his time ; it

brought him into still closer connexion with the natu-

ralists and collectors in all parts of the kingdom, thus

strengthening former friendships, and weaving the ties

of not a few new ones.

On the 28th July, after his return to London, he

wrote to Mr. Ramsay

:

—“ I spent a few days very de-

lightfully and very usefully with Lady Hastings, who is

one of the most excellent (and without exception the

cleverest) woman I ever met. Her husband too, Captain

Henry, is an exceeding nice person. He is an amateur

chemist, she a£

fossilist/ and knows her work, and both

are enthusiasts in music and drawing;both playing and

singing, and painting admirably. There is not the

slightest grain of nonsense or affectation in either, so you

may guess my pleasure in becoming intimate with such

trumps, even though they be—only in name—aristo-

crats. Lady Hastings has the finest collection of Spee-

ton clay fossils I have ever met with. I have made a

full abstract of them for the use of our establishment, a

424 MEMOIlt OF CHAP. XU.

synopsis iii fact of many more species (twice as many)

as in Phillip’s work. This will come in for Yorkshire. I

have carried away a new oolitic star-fish too, most con-

veniently for my report on that subject.

“ Now about Welsh movements. By the end of the

next week I hope to clear off much work in hand here,

and then, if you so agree, to start for Wales. My wish is

to go via Bristol to look to the museum and collections

there, for sundry things we require before printing some

matters on hand. Thence I would take packet for

Swansea, where I must, if possible, for my own use, see

Jeffrey’s collection. And from thence I would proceed

any way you may direct, and meet you at any point you

may appoint.”

On the 15th of August he reached Dolancothy in

South Wales, and met there Professor Ramsay, who hav-

ing sprained his foot, had been for some weeks laid aside

from field-work. They remained for a fortnight in the

pleasant family-circle of Dolancothy. During the day

they rode out with the ladies in

short excursions round the neigh-

bourhood, or the two men of science

rambled out together, Mr. Ramsay

on his pony, and Forbes walking

by his side, or Forbes set out him-

self to sketch, or to learn the art

of pike-fishing, or to join in a game

of quoits. The evenings passed

away in pleasant chat, Forbes as

usual busy with his pencil, making

portraits of the family, or drawing the quaint grotesque


figures which seemed ever lurking in some corner of his

brain, ready to jump forth whenever, in an odd moment,

a pencil and a piece of paper lay before him.

By the 30th of the month, Mr. Ramsay found him-

self sufficiently recovered to renew his field duties, so he

and Forbes started off on a tour of inspection. They first

i went to Llangaddoc to see the Sawdde section, where

every subdivision of the palaeozoic rocks is seen, from

the Lower Silurian up to the Devonian, and thence on

the same day they reached Llandovery. For eight weeks

they continued to flit from place to place, comparing

rock section with rock section, and thus by a careful

examination of the fossils in the field, bringing the Silu-

rian strata in different parts of Wales into closer harmony

)

with each other. From Llandovery they went to Builth,

thence to Pen-y-bont, over the hills by Bedd-ugre, and

down into the valley of the Ithan;away over to King-

ton to see the limestones and trap-rocks of Nash Scar,

and then by Old Radnor Hill and Presteign to Ludlow.

Thence they went north to Church Stretton, and re-

mained there for a fortnight, making many excursions to

neighbouring localities : Wenlock Edge with its rich fos-

siliferous limestone, the Cambrian ridge of the Longmynd

with its encircling conglomerates, Caer Caradoc, Lee

Botwood, Winstanstow, and All Stretton, where lived a

pleasant family under whose roof the evenings were

| sometimes passed.

On the 1st of October they reached Bishop’s Castle,

and remained there till the 9 th, geologizing as usual when

the weather permitted. The snug little inn at Cherbury

was their next resting-place, from which they made

426 MEMOIR OF CHAP. XII *

several excursions, one in particular to Montgomery,j

where, in walking through the churchyard, the sexton

pointed out the grave of a murderer whom he had

buried with his own hands twenty-six years before. The

prisoner, it appeared, had protested his innocence, and

declared that the grass would never grow over his grave,

a prophecy, however, which had not come true. The sun

shone out brightly as he was led to execution, but no

sooner had he set foot on the scaffold, than “it thundered

and lightened like mad a sure proof in the eyes of the

sexton, that the man had been righteously condemned.

From Cherbury they started on the 18 th for Welsh-

pool, and spent the following day in a long ramble among

the igneous rocks of the Breidden Hills, then to Meifod

on the banks of the Yyrnwy, in a quiet Welsh valley,

down which they drove to Oswestry. A few excursions

in this neighbourhood completed the tour. On the

morning of the 26 th, the two friends parted company,

and Forbes returned by Ruabon to London.

Of these excursions Mr. Ramsay writes :—“ There

never was a more delightful companion. It was on such

occasions that his inner life best revealed itself. His

knowledge was so varied, his conversation often so bril-

liant and instructive. And he would take as well as

give, for no man ever better appreciated the work of his

less gifted coadjutors. Some of the happiest hours of my

life were spent in conversation with him on these excur-

sions, and many a grave talk and hearty laugh did we

enjoy together, when, after a hard day’s walking and

hammering, we returned for the evening to our wayside

inn. He would write some of his poems then, and hand

I

1S47- EDWARD FORBES. 427

1

them to me for criticism. When in the field he would

sometimes become abstracted, and stopping now and

then, pencil down in verse the ideas as they rose in his

mind. He was also constantly in the habit of making

coloured drawings of remarkable geological localities.

When we were alone together, he used to place me in the

foreground, and abjuring the neutral tints in which I

might be clad, to make up the picture, he would clothe

me in red and blue, and place an imaginary damsel by

my side, saying that I was the standard ‘ lovyer’ in his

pictures.”

The remainder of this year was spent somewhat

erratically. After leaving his friend in Wales, Forbes

returned to London for a few weeks. During his leisure

hours there, he began the preparation of a new Palaeonto-

logical Map of the British Islands, which he had agreed

to design for Mr. A. K. Johnston’s Physical Atlas. The

work was completed during the ensuing spring, and

published in the autumn of the same year.

In this map, the area occupied by the several geologi-

cal formations was laid down from the most recent re-

searches. But it differed from all previous geological

maps, in the prominence that was given to the palaeonto-

logical features of the country. The names selected for

insertion on the sheets were for the most part of geological

interest. Besides this, localities remarkably productive in

fossils were marked with distinctive characters to show the

nature of organic remains;copious lists of fossils were

inserted round the margin;

especial reference was madeto the more remarkable phenomena of the distribution of

life during the glacial period, and the lines of depth traced

_


round tlie coast to mark as far as possible the several

zones into which Forbes divided the British seas;

lastly,

he added eight large folio pages of explanation, giving at

a glance, in a tabular arrangement, the main palaeonto-

logical features of the British Isles.

Edward Forbes left town early in December, with

the intention of first visiting the Staffordshire coal-field,

where Mr. Jukes was at that time surveying;studying

carefully some parts of the collection of Silurian fossils

in Dudley, and then crossing to assist Mr. Oldham in the

museum at Dublin.

“ Dudley, 1 Uh December 1847 .

“Dear Ramsay,—You will see by the above date

that I am on the tramp. I left London on Tuesday,

with Bone for Wolverhampton, where we spent Wednes-

day with Jukes and Selwyn, examining fossil collections,

and completing cystidean plates. On Thursday I left

Bone to finish his drawings, and came to Dudley with

the luggage by coach, and walked myself with J. and S.

to see some geological points of much interest. A walk

over the same fine of country would, I think, be service-

able to you for your lectures as well as survey. The

open coal works are very interesting, and the alterna-

tions of rocks among the slags of the great furnaces. . . .

Yesterday, Bone and I had a long and most satisfactory

day’s work in the Dudley collection, and to-day, by the

afternoon, we shall complete what we have to do, when

he goes to London, and I on to do Oldham s job in Dublin,

where I shall be on Monday morning. We have got the

subjects of six new plates of Cystidese here, all of great

beauty and interest. My paper on the fossil star-fishes

r

1847.EDWARD FORBES.

is in Sir Henry’s hands for the press, and the first part

of the cystidean paper will be sent from Dublin. At

the last Geological Society meeting, we had a most in-

teresting paper by Sharpe, on the relation of the Ameri-

can and English Silurian fossils. I had occasion to pitch

into De Verneuil and the French pretty strongly, in

return for a side slap at me in the last Bulletin, where

there is a long and very interesting paper by De Verneuil

on the same subject with Sharpe’s. In that paper he

Iattacks ‘ certains geologues ’ who hold deep-water views

about the Silurians, and maintains the American Silurians

were all very shallow water beds, his chief argument

!

being the so-called ripple-marks and fucoids ! The re-

sult of Sharpe’s work, however, confirms the deep-water

1 view, and Lyell backs it.”

Christmas found him in Dublin. While there, he

sent a short note of hints to Mr. Ramsay, who had

recently been appointed Professor of Geology at Uni-

versity College, and whose first course of lectures was

about to commence. “ The leading ideas of both Hutton

and Lyell,” he says, “ are older than either, and must be

culled from many sources. We find one in Strabo,

another in Henry More, a third in Molyneux, a fourth

in Leibnitz, and so on. In truth, ideas and principles

are independent of men;the application of them and

their illustration is man’s duty and merit. The time

will come when the author of a view shall be set aside,

and the view only taken cognizance of. This will be the

millennium of Science.”

By the middle of January, the Survey engagementsin Dublin were completed, and he returned to reside for

1


some months continuously in London. The paper on

the fossil Star-fishes, though not yet published, was

ready for the press .

1 It contained a synopsis of all the

British fossil Asteriadae, and a notice of the foreign

species with which its author was at the time acquainted.

The monograph of the Silurian Cystideae followed the

last paper in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey .

2

That remarkable order of radiate animals had only been

lately recognised as occurring in Britain. A number of

specimens having been procured from the Silurian rocks

of Wales, Forbes, whose interest in the subject had been

excited by the perusal of Von Buch’s memoir, “Ueber

Cystideen,” undertook their investigation. His paper

forms, perhaps, his most valuable contribution to the

palaeontology of the older geological formations.

In addition to these long and elaborate papers, the

palaeontological map of the British Isles, already noticed,

still occupied him at intervals during the remainder of

January, and part of February. His monograph of the

British naked-eyed Medusae, published by the Bay

Society, likewise demanded not a little of his leisure

time this winter. When completed, it formed a quarto

volume, thoroughly characteristic of Edward Forbes, not

only in its careful and succinct descriptions, but espe-

cially in the humour that creeps out again and again in

his zoological details, giving an air of liveliness to what

might seem sufficiently dreary reading. For instance,

in referring to the alleged stinging property of an

1 It forms a memoir of twenty-five "This paper occupies fifty pages of

pages, entitled, “On the Asterindce the second part of vol. ii. of the Memoirs,

found fossil in Britain."—Mem. Oeol. p. 183.

Survey, ir. part ii. p. 457.

I


Oceania when applied to the eyes, he remarks : “Not

being ambitious of suffering stone-blindness by playing

too closely with even the smallest Gorgon’s head, I have

never ventured to repeat the experiment, and prefer

; keeping my eyes intact, to thrusting medusae into them.

For such rash experiments, Ben Jonson’s song might be

<paraphrased,

—

‘ O do not wanton with those eyes,

Lest you be sick with seeing.’”

But besides all these scientific labours, he was busily

engaged, in conjunction with Mr. Hanley, in the pre-

paration of the numbers of the British Mollusca. “ I

am in the midst of work,” he writes to Mr. Thompson,

“ having many things on hand. Survey memoirs espe-

\daily

;the Mollusca are but by-play. The medusae are

1 all on the stone, and colouring. My map of Great

I Britain for Johnston is out of hand, but not yet pub-

3 lished. Our Piccadilly building 1is rising fast, and

Government must come to some conclusions about the

posts there this summer, but I fear the state of the

budget will not permit much to be done. In ten days,

I shall have to make a hurried visit to the Isle of Man.

1 My poor brother there must have his foot amputated.

Fortunately one of my aunts has been most kind to

him, and will not allow it to be done except in her

house, and under her care. As nursing is half the

battle, this may save him. I wish I had a home for

i him, and must try to make one.”

On the 25th February, he lectured to the Royal

: Institution “ On the Question in Natural History : Have1 The present Museum of Economic Geology, one end of which fronts to Piccadilly.

L


Genera, like Species, Centres of Distribution V’ Hisobject was to show that genera are not universally

diffused over the world, but are gathered into certain

geographical provinces, in which there is a point wherethe genera attain their maximum development, andwhence they gradually diminish as we trace them out-

wards. The same fact was also pointed out as charac-

terizing the appearance of genera in the geological past.

They did not come in at once in their full development,

but slowly, and by a small number of species, and then,

increasing by degrees, reached their maximum, after

which they gradually waned until their final extinction.

He regarded it as highly probable that the point in

geographical space where genera attain then’ greatest

development, represents the point of origin from which

the different members of the genus dispersed them-

selves.

The spring of 1848 is memorable for the wide-spread

shaking of the nations that followed the revolution by

which Louis Philippe lost Ins throne, A vague dis-

quietude passed like a contagion through all classes

in our own country. The day of the Chartist meeting

on Kennington Common was anticipated as likely to

witness a revolutionary outbreak, and measures were

secretly taken by the Government to guard the Bank

and other public buildings, and quell the insurrection

by force. When such movements were going on in

London, it would perhaps have been strange had no

show of alarm been visible within the precincts of

Craig’s Court. Without pausing to consider whether a

collection of stones would be likely to prove attractive


to a revolutionary mob, it was decided that the Museum

:had a good chance of being ransacked, and to guard

l

against such a catastrophe, the Government hammerers

were desired to arm themselves and defend their

j camp.

Edward Forbes had at first treated the whole matter

; as a joke, ridiculed the idea of a rising of the people,

i and laughed heartily at the notion of an attack on the

l- collections at Craig’s Court. His merry taunts on the

preparation to resist the civil rebellion, procured him no

I good-will at head-quarters, but at the last he relented so

j far as to enrol himself with the rest as a special constable,

'i and shouldered his baton in defence of his cystideans

>. and trilobites.

On the morning of the day that was to witness the

; outbreak, the members of the Survey and of the Museumi? assembled within the building, which was then closed.

! There was a back-window of the Museum that looked

>; into Scotland Yard, and here for a while Sir Henry

was observed to be very busy pulling in the cutlasses

f. that were handed up by the police authorities outside.

Everything was now ready for a siege. The morning

i however passed away, and still the mob came not;the

• forenoon crept on, and all outside remained quiet. ByJ degrees the besieged, finding no enemy, stole away from

- their general to see what was the real state of matters.

' They returned in the afternoon to report, and found

that the Director had improvised an excellent dinner for

the whole staff in his own room. This ended, they

I

adjourned to the laboratory upstairs, and concluded this

2 E

.

434 MEMOIR Oh' CHAP. XI f.

warlike day by smoking an unlimited number of pipes

of peace.

The month of April was spent partly at Efford with

Lady Hastings, and partly in a geological tour with the

surveyors in Hampshire and Dorsetshire. On the 19th,

Forbes met Professor Ramsay and Mr. Trimmer at

Lymington, whence they crossed at once to the Isle of

Wight, spending the night there, and after an excursion

to Alum Bay, returning to Lymington next day. The

ramble westward was a pleasant one. Pedestrian tourists

were rarities in Hampshire, more especially geologists,

with heavy coats, pockets stuffed with specimens, and

boots enveloped in mud. The landlord at Milford

received the naturalists with not a little suspicion, and

seemed evidently at a loss to reconcile their easy gen-

tlemanly manner with the travel-stained state of their

attire. Next morning, indeed, he could hardly refrain

his surprise, when he found his bill not only paid, but

paid well. Crossing the ferry they were charmed with

the sight of Christ-church, a grand old pile, seen across a

marshy moor, and an arm of the sea, with low hills be-

yond. Forbes sketched it on the spot. Then they

worked their way, hammer in hand, along the cliffs to

Bournemouth, thence to Poole Harbour, and so, by boat,

to Studland, along cliffs of great geological interest,

until they reached Swanage in time for tea.

Next day was spent among the cliffs of Swanage, a

wonderful piece of coast-scenery—dark rocks worn into

caves, with the sea-foam mantling around their base, & 1

gloomy sky overhead, and white gulls wheeling across it-


Striking inland, they passed Corfe Castle, a noble ruin

standing: on a chalk hill at the farther side of a dark

moor;then by Wareham to Dorchester and Weymouth.

Three or four days were passed in this neighbourhood,

one of them among the wondrous ruin of rocks that

iskirts the shore of the Isle of Portland, another along

i the shingle heaps of the Chesil Bank. By the 30th of

i the month, the necessary geological inspection had been

i completed, and the party broke up, Professor Ramsay

: remaining in Dorsetshire, and Forbes returning in the

' evening to London, where he arrived in time for the

( opening of the botanical lectures at King’s College,

I which this year began on the 2d of May.

These lectures had long ceased to cost him trouble

P

in their preparation. He had by yearly practice aug-

mented his natural ease and grace of lecturing, and thus

men whose tastes had but little of a scientific cast, often

found their way to his class-room, attracted by the

charm which he threw over his elucidation of vegetableOstructure. Men of science, too, loved to listen to him

now and then;

his markedly suggestive style of treat-

ment serving as a stimulus to thought, and often casting

a new light on cjuestions with which they were already

familiar. He used to tell of at least one specimen of

another type of listeners. “At the commencement of

one of his courses, he observed a gentleman assiduously

writing notes day after day. He seized an opportunity

of remarking to this individual that he seemed to be

taking a great amount of trouble. Whereupon it wasfrankly explained to him that the supposed student had

436 MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. CHAP. XII

been recently appointed lecturer on botany in one of

the London Medical Schools, and knowing very little of

the subject, found it convenient to deliver to his own

students in the afternoon the lecture he heard Forbes

give in the morning.” 1 »1 Dr. Bennett’s Memoir, p. 18.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CONTINUED—HIS MARRIAGE.

That Edward Forbes had, from his boyhood, an

enthusiastic love for the gentler sex needs not to be told.

The nymphs that float down the pages of his early note-

books, amid scattered scraps of lectures and gaunt skulls

and skeletons;the supplicating maidens of his place-

books, seized by ruthless monsters, but delivered in the

•: very instant of time by a tall, slim youth, evidently

meant for the limner himself;the female faces, pensive

i with braided locks, or laughing among curls, that come

i up again and again in the memoranda of his London

life, and in the jottings of his country rambles;above

I all, the endless amatory songs and anacreontics, and

l unfinished snatches of verse that form so large a propor-

tion of his fragmentary papers,

1 show clearly enough

1 One of these may be quoted here :

—

Heart ! be still, now idly beating,' Tell the tale of thy defeating,

’Tis not scorn that hath destroyed thee,

I ’Tis not beauty that hath cloyed thee :

’Tis thy fate,

Ever loving when too late !

i Longing still for that bespoken,

Hoping still for pledges broken,

Wishing still where fate opposes.

Gathering thorns when grasping roses :

’Tis thy woe,

Heaven ordains it must be so.

Vainly we the gods importune.

Poets poor for better fortune;

So that ever blest and blessing.

Still caressed, and still caressing :

All our themes

Would no more be idle dreams.

Ye who at the welkin gazing.

Of new planets tell amazing :

Can ye not some world discover,

Where shall rest the hapless lover,

And his love,

Crushed below, be blest above. . . .

438 MEMOIR OF ClIAP. XIII.

what, amid all changes, remained the under-current of hi a

thoughts. Despite the dreamy countenances of many of

his nymphs, and the high-flown style of much of, at

least, his earlier poetry, the feeling was no mere senti-

mentality. The yearnings and longings of what he calls

“ the transition or caterpillar state” of bachelorhood, were

graphically enough described from his own experience in

the pages of the Literary Gazette. “ What,” he asks,

“ is the peculiarity of bachelorhood ? It is the yearning

after love returned, the craving for marriage, the longing

for woman s companionship. Surround a bachelor with

every possible comfort;give him the roomiest of bed-

chambers, the most refreshing of couches, the largest of

sponging baths;cover his breakfast-table with the whitest

of table-cloths;make his tea with the hottest of boiling

water, envelop his body in the most comfortable of

dressing-gowns, and his feet in the easiest of slippers

;

feed him among the luxuries and comforts of the snuggest

of clubs, do all these things and more for him and he will

nevertheless be unhappy. He mopes and ponders and

dreams about love and marriage. His imagination calls

up shadow-wives, and he fancies himself a Benedict. In

his dream he sees a fond and charming lady beside his

solitary hearth, and prattling little ones climbing up his

knees. He wakes to grow disgusted with his loneliness,

and, despairing, vents his spleen in abuse of the very

condition for which, waking and sleeping, he longs and

pines.” 1

That one so susceptible of the gentler emotions, anil

so great a favourite in society, should have befcn in his

1 Literary Papers, p. 220.

EDWARD FORBES. 439

i

I

1848.

thirty-third year still unmarried, is a strong testimony

to his prudence and judgment. He alleged, indeed, at

that time, that all his life he had never been fairly in

love, and that the furthest stage he had yet reached was

hearty but qualified esteem. An impartial critic, how-

ever, would be apt to look on some of his pencillings as

dictated by a warmer sentiment, and certainly much of

his poetry would be received as good evidence against

him. But be that as it may, he had been long anxious

to marry. Two obstacles had hitherto lain in his way;

in the first place he declared he had never met a woman

whom he could esteem so thoroughly as to marry her

;

and in the second place, even if he had discovered the

needed damsel, he had never enjoyed income enough to

support her. If there ever arose in the heart of Edward

Forbes a feeling akin to envy, it was at the sight of his

comrades entering one by one into the married ranks.

He watched his brethren of the old “ oineromathic band”

as each in turn formed a still closer alliance than that

which they symbolized in their red ribbon and silver

triangle. Among the “ Bed Lions,” the frequency of

the espousals filled him with concern. It is amusing to

note how he chronicles these events in his letters, and

how lugubriously he turns from a contemplation of

the happiness of his friends to ponder the destiny of

his solitary self. One marriage had been spoken of

but was deferred, then spoken of again, and finally

celebrated, and in moralizing on the subject, Forbes

concludes with the hope, that as the lucky fellow had

got fairly away at last, Providence would now take him-

self in tow.

440 MEMOIR OF CHAP. XIII.

The wish obtained its fulfilment much sooner than

his most sanguine expectations had conjectured.

When visiting at a friend’s house in Surrey, he met

Miss Ashworth, daughter of the late General Sir C. Ash-

worth. It was a short visit, but long enough to make

him a lover;at least, to bring him nearer to that condition

than he would allow he had ever been before. “ Had I

time,” he wrote, “ I would fall in love;the charms being

good sense, unselfishness, amiability, and accomplish-

ments of rare quality.” He met her again in London,

each time with increasing regard. He seemed at last to

have found the helpmate of whom, through these long

years of toil, he had been dreaming. There appeared,

too, to be a reciprocal attachment;and, though in alter-

nate hope and fear, all went well. He began to build

castles of delight, and fondly anticipated finding in a

house of his own that rest and solace for which he longed.

But, so . far as his experience went, to form a wish had

very generally the effect of defeating its fulfilment.

Besides, if at last the pliilosopher had been caught, it

was hardly to be expected that in His case the course of

true love should have a special exemption from its pro-

verbial roughness. And so it happened, that whilst he

was dreaming and scheming, his friend had unexpectedly

been called to accompany some of her relatives to

Canada. The intelligence fell like a thunderbolt among

his day-dreams. He must needs see her, however, before

the departure, and plead, though with little chance of

success, that she should remain in this country. It was

vain to hope that the family arrangements by which she

was tied could possibly be changed, and he returned

184S. EDWARD FORBES. 441

in despair. Yet lie felt sure that the regret was not on

his side alone, and in his farewell visit this seemed so

j evident that, after allowing a day or two to elapse, and

finding, as he said, that his fit continued, he determined

to offer marriage. Describing the events to a friend at

the time, he wrote,—

“ This morning I plucked up courage

to write my letter, telling her plainly how I felt, how I

am situated, that I have no resources save head and pen,

was as poor as proud, and offered her myself if, with all

these drawbacks, she would have me.” He received an

answer the same evening, and immediately wrote :

—

“ Dear Ramsay,—It is now near twelve o’clock on

Monday night [17th July], and though there is no chance

: of this letter going till to-morrow night, I cannot resist

the temptation of writing the most important news in my; existence to you, and first to you.

“I have won a wife!!!” [Here follows the sketch

of a maiden offering her hand to a spectral lover, who,

standing on one leg and flourishing the other in mid-air,

waves his hat triumphantly aloft.] “ To-morrow I shall

i probably be so dumfoundered with astonishment at mydaring and success as not to be able to write at all. Ten

i minutes ago I trembled to open a note which Holmes

brought from the Museum after hours, and which settled

i the matter. Never did philosopher make so bold a

istroke for a wife.”

The intended voyage was, with the full consent of

I Miss Ashworth’s friends, at once abandoned, and pre-

:parations were made for the marriage, which, it was

: arranged, should take place as soon after the meeting of

the British Association as possible. As for Forbes, it


may readily be imagined that his ideas for some weeks

were none of the clearest. Fortunately, he had no very

important paper to read before the Association, while the

more pressing literary work of the Survey had been

completed, or was far on the way to completion. By

the end of July, however, he had made up his mind to

leave London and spend some days in Mr. Macandrew’s

yacht, before visiting Swansea, where the Association

was this year to assemble. From Milford Haven he

writes to Mr. Thompson (August 3d),—

“ I left London

on Saturday, tearing myself most unwillingly from the

arms of love, but determined to do some duty in the

dredging way before Swansea. It wTas, indeed, very

necessary that I should get hold, if possible, of sundiy

animals before the winter, for the forthcoming numbers

of the ‘ Molluscci,’ and this was my only opportunity.

My dear girl—for I may call her so fairly now— is quite

reasonable on such points, and fully appreciated my

reasons. I joined Macandrew on Monday morning here.

The weather until to -day has been unfit for the deep sea,

but we have been well occupied exploring this Lough

(for so it is) of Milford. Moreover, an account of our

work here may tell upon the Welsh meeting, and stir up

the leek-eaters. It has struck us to-day that a compari-

son of the list of molluscs found here with those of some

similar locality at the other end of the Irish Sea, would

be interesting. Strangford Lough is the case most

parallel. Could you send me such a catalogue ?;;

At this meeting Forbes read:— 1. “Notice of Dis-

coveries among the British Cystideae.” This paper con-

tained a brief outline of the subject of his monograph


in the memoirs of the Geological Survey, which was

published at a later period of this year, and has been

referred to on a preceding page (p. 430). 2. On some

marine animals from the British Channel.

The Bed Lions had a good muster this year. Forbes

tilled the presidential chan;and, after one of his humo-

rous speeches, was crowned with a velvet cap, em-

broidered with the effigies of rampant red lions.

On the 15 th of the month, while still at Swansea,

he wrote :—

“ Dear Thompson,—This is the last day of the Meet-

ing, which has been an admirable one both in men and

matter, and I never knew the business of our section

better, or the section itself better attended. I go to

town immediately, to make preparations for being spliced.

My love is at Lymington keeping residence for me.

Everything goes on right.”

On reaching London, he wrote again to the same

correspondent, 25th August 1848 :

—

“ Dear Thompson,—I ought to have written you

before this, but a man in my condition is not compos

for the time. I left Swansea on Friday, arrived in

London on Saturday, did as much business as I could

;

started for Southampton on Sunday morning to see

Col. and Mrs. Hay away;

arrived just in time, and

could not say that I was sorry, as them sailing left

Emily behind. I then went to Lymington, to see

Captain Rooke, E.’s uncle, at whose house we are to be

married, came back on Wednesday, and have been hard

at work getting business settled.

“ We are to be married on Thursday next (Aug.

1


31st). The bride’s uncle, Sir George Burrard, who Ls

head of the family, will probably perform the ceremony.

I expect Oldham over to be my assistant, as Ramsayis in Scotland, and most of my old friends have got

married of late. Oldham comes as my colleague in the

Survey. After a week at Bournemouth we shall go

upon the Survey, which, being on the Llangollen and

Snowdon districts, will suit well. No more at present.

—Ever, E. Forbes.”

After the marriage and the week at Bournemouth,

the professor proceeded with his young wife to Llan-

gollen in North Wales, to join the geological surveyors.

In this movement he was regulated mainly by the

prospect of having to request additional leave of absence

during the winter, as the Chair of Natural History at

Edinburgh seemed likely to fall vacant before many

months could elapse. Instead, therefore, of making a

long marriage tour, he resolved to reserve his holiday,

and employ it in strengthening his chances of obtaining

the long-coveted haven of rest in the north. In the

meantime, he said he would “ marry as an ouvrier, and

go down upon the Survey a week after the wedding.”

At Llangollen he took lodgings in a small form-house,

by the side of the lane leading over the hills to Glyn

Ceiriog, which was afterwards known among the geologists

as “ Honeymoon Cottage.” “ I am squatted down here

with my wife,” he wrote, “ in a very homely cottage with ;

a cabbage-garden before it, and some very beautiful

scenery. I have every reason to be more and more

pleased with her every day.”

EDWARD FORBES. 445i. 1848.

The presence of Mrs. Forbes, and a sister of the

present Local Director of the Geological Survey of Ire-

land, enlivened some of the geological excursions. Mr.

Jukes, who was one of the surveyors of the party, has

i

furnished the following particulars of this period of

Forbes’s life. “ The wet weather,” he says, “ which was

i so continuous in Wales during all June, July, and August

of 1848 had then given place to a fine autumn, and we

had one or two delightful days among the hills and val-

leys north of the Dee. We crossed over the hill of Cas-

tell Dinas Bran several times. On one occasion being

: driven to take shelter under some of the arches of the

i ruin, Forbes dashed off a sketch in which Ramsay,

Aveline, and I figured as brigands on the look-out peering

over the crags. On another visit it was proposed that we

i should race down the north side of the hill. With the

I advantage of strong, hob-nailed country boots, I could run

with ease down the declivity, assisting Mrs. Forbes to

keep pace with us. Forbes himself, however, being shod

with smooth-soled boots, had made slower progress, and

when on reaching the bottom we looked back for him, wesaw him advancing very deliberately, and in a fashion al-

together his owm. Squatting down with his hands on the

’ ground behind Ins heels, and taking his knees over Ins

i shoulders, he hobbled down, partly on his hands and

!

partly on his feet, with a queer rocking-horse motion, Ins

lengthened and distorted face and thrust-out tongue

peering out behind his legs. It was an admirable im-

personation of the pucks, elves, and hobgoblins he so

delighted to draw.”

The requirements of the Survey never admit of a


lengthened sojourn in one locality, and Forbes found his

married life not less nomadic than his state of bachelor-

ship had been. After six weeks pleasantly spent amongthe hills of Wales, partly with Mr. Jukes at Llangollen,

and partly with Mr. Ramsay at Llanberis, he had to cross

to Ireland in the end of October to arrange the collec-

tions of the infant museum in Dublin. Mrs. Forbes,

however, accompanied him, and remained with him dur

ing his stay in Ireland.

It would be hardly true to assert that Forbes had

grown weary of his appointment, and that its duties

became more irksome the longer they were performed.

In point of fact, his natural temperament inclined him

to the kind of life rendered necessary in the Survey, and

had his course only been beginning, he would have

entered most heartily into its pleasures and fatigues.

But it must be remembered that he had joined the

Survey to gain a livelihood, and be able to give himself

eventually to the natural history work to which his pre-

vious life had been devoted, and which was undoubtedly

his proper vocation. Can it be wondered then, that as

years rolled on and no leisure came, as he had to work

hard, and received wholly inadequate remuneration, as

gradually he found himself drawn into new spheres of

scientific inquiry, while those which he had marked out

as the business of his life remained untrodden, and the

materials he had collected lay waste and inaccessible,

—

can it be wondered that in these circumstances he should

have longed to relinquish a post which required him to

work the work of others, while his own, on which he be-

lieved his fame was to rest, could only be done fitfully


in stolen intervals, or not clone at all ? It was not dis-

content or restlessness that impelled him, nor even a

desire for a larger income (though that would have been

gladly welcomed), but the earnest wish to gain rest and

leisure to complete what he had begun, and to build his

reputation, not on the arrangement of museums and the

determination of fossil species, but on original natural

history investigations, and on the enlarged philosophic

views of the connexion of the natural history sciences,

which could only be worked out during a life of quiet

and freedom.

Moreover, he complained of a want of definite ar-

rangement in the Survey, that official intermeddling

from head-quarters perplexed and hindered the useful-

ness of the service, and that a system, of “ red-tape

routine” was employed in dealing with the Survey

wholly at variance with the nature of scientific work.

The erection of the new Museum in Jermyn Street,

to contain all the collections of Craig’s Court, and the

proposal to establish in the new building a training-

school for geological science, seemed the dawning of

better things. It was possible to develop there an un-

equalled range of educational advantages, and to create

an admirable school of geology with its cognate sciences.

Edward Forbes knew well the capabilities of this esta-

blishment, and fully admitted that it might be made

one of the finest scientific colleges in the world. But

he saw no prospect of a change of arrangement, or sign

of greater order, and looked forward with not a little

distrust to the scientific prospects of the future. “ I have

no intention of leaving the Survey,” he wrote to Pro-

448 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XIII.

fessor Ramsay, “ unless a better post turns up, and in the

present state of Survey arrangements, should anything

happen in Edinburgh, the temptation would be very

strong;since both in a pecuniary point of view, and in

freedom of movement, an appointment there would be

superior. It ought not to be so, but unfortunately is so,

nor do I see much sign of a better state of things here.”

Again, while in Dublin, he remarked to the same cor-

respondent, 1st December 1848 :

—

“ For my own part, whilst I would gladly stay with

the Museum, if things were put in definite and dignified

order, I am fully determined not to sit down there under

any provisionalc adjustment/ I cannot seriously much

longer give up all time for thought, travel, or reading

;

time winch, in a pecuniary point of view, is worth twice

as much as any income the Museum will give;unless

something better be proposed than an indefinite position,

a small salary, and vague hopes and promises. I see

clearly as a man gets older he requires some stable posi-

tion to maintain both his respectability and his comfort.

I feel in London that the Survey and Muzzy 1 at present

give neither, and every day have occasion to learn that

my position there depends on my doings out of the

Museum, and my post at King’s College, whilst my really

most important ofiice, that of the Survey, gives no con-

sideration, but is looked upon as a sort of clerkship.

Now, this can be all remedied without making any ex-

traordinary demands for money. The present salaries,

considering the position the chief officers are supposed

to hold, are of course insufficient; but no very great

i Forbes’s contraction for Museum. It occurs frequently in liis letters.

HHm

184S. EDWAKl) FORBES. 449

increase, with a well-considered plan of educational ope-

rations in the new building, would make them comfort-

able. I keep these views very much to myself, as I do

not wish to impede the work, but am quite determined

when we meet in town to bring tilings to a distinct

understanding.”

While at Dublin he found it necessary to visit the

Isle of Man, to take steps towards the securing, if pos-

sible, of his lands of inheritance. He thus describes the

results of the trip in a letter to Mr. Thompson :

—

“ My Manx business is, I hope, in train for satisfac-

tory settlement. I wish to save certain estates, which

would be small and unimportant in England, but which,

in the Isle of Man, have a meaning beyond their value,

having been in the Manx part of my family from time

unrecorded. The only power I had over them was the

preventing of their going to sale. In order to get rid of

the embarrassment before I thought of getting married,

I had made arrangements for forcing a conclusion re-

specting them, and bringing them to a definite sale, or

rather such part of them as could be so treated. Acting

under the advice of two relatives (one of whom has it in

his power to leave me property by and by), I ventured

on purchasing the main parts of these properties, and

selling the outlying portions. As nobody would bid

against me, though lots of purchasers came, since the

Manx looked upon me as rightful owner, I had to take

what I wanted on pledge of paying the mortgages, which

nearly came up to the value of the land. What I re-

tained in this way came to between £4000 and £5000,to be settled in six months’ time.”


This sum was secured through Mrs. Forbes’s trustees,

and the property thus remained still in the family of the

Manx Forbeses.

Before the end of the year the professor had returned

with Mrs. Forbes to London, and the Christmas week

was passed with his mother-in-law at Sandgate in Kent.

He would not furnish a house in town;the uncertainty

whether he was to remain in the Survey, or to obtain an

early appointment to Professor Jameson’s chair, forbade

such a step. So that after Christmas, he returned to

London, and contented himself with hiring a furnished

house for six months, and breathing a hearty wish for

the northern professorship.

The work of the winter, besides the ordinary duties

of the Survey, embraced the preparation of a lecture for

the Loyal Institution, on the question whether new

species have come into existence since the creation of

man. It was given on the 2d of March, and is analysed

in a letter written a day or two afterwards to Mr. Jukes :

—

“

I gave my lecture at the Loyal Institution on Friday

evening. Subject, ‘ Have new species appeared since

man’s creation?’ It is trying how near one can go to

the fire without burning one’s fingers.

“ Argument .—We have no positive or available

evidence of new species having appeared within the

human epoch, for the increase in the lists of species

depends on the increase of our knowledge ;and the

assertions of Crosse, etc., about the creation of animals

by electricity are rubbishy.

“ What then can we say on the question ?

“ I propose a test not yet applied ;viz., Certain


areas, presenting all the capabilities for becoming zoolo-

gical and botanical centres of creation, have been formed

since the termination of the last pre-Adamite period,

i.e., since the glacial epoch.

“ Ex.—Terrestrial. Britain, north of Europe.

Marine. Baltic, Mediterranean.

“ Do we find the population of such areas members

of special centres of creation, or colonists from older ones ?

“ They are all colonists and emigrantsfrom older

centres.

“The presumption, therefore, is, that new centres

(and, consequently, species) have not come into existence

since the commencement of the human epoch.

“ I don’t intend to flatter the parsons by taking

their dates for man’s age, but mean fairly to state that

I speak of the epoch of man’s advent geologically,and

am quite as ready to admit that it happened twenty

thousand years ago as five thousand.

“ The above is the more practical part of my ar-

gument. The more transcendental is as follows :

—

“ Centres in time are analogous to centres in space (or

in other words, provinces in time are regulated by the

same laws as provinces in space).

“ Question.—Is man a member of the last organic pro-

vince in time, for if so, he need not have been the last

member, and species might have appeared after him ?

“Argument on this point.—The members of the pre-

sent animal (and vegetable) population of the world are

members of a centre in time, which had its point of crea-

tive maximum anterior to man’s coming.

“Man’s appearance a unique geological fact. Man


not a member of the last centre of creation, but a

unique being and concentrated act of creation equivalent

to an entire province in himself.

“ The steps of this part of the argument too long for a

scribble.

“ Conclusion.

—

That the probabilities are in favour of

no creations after man.

“ That the creation of man was a final act, and the

great purpose to which previous creations tended.

“ That such a view accords with the dignity of position

and moral and social stand, taken by man in the world.

“ The whole lecture springs out of my last on generic

centres, and is one of a series, which I mean one of these

days to print in the shape of a volume of essays, “ On

the Mutual relation of the Natural History Sciences/’

The Museum in Jermyn Street had now so far advanced

as to allow the boxes and hampers that had been lying

for years in Craig’s Court to be at last unpacked. The

arrangement of the fossils in the galleries of the new

building continued to form a chief part of Forbes’s sur-

vey duties up to May of the following year. He had

begun too the preparation of illustrations of British Or-

ganic Remains as part of the Survey publications, and

the first decade appeared on the 24th of May of this

year. It was devoted to a selection of Echinoderms, of

the orders Asteriaclce and Echinidce.

On the 24th of June, Mrs. Forbes was prematurely

confined of a still-born infant. Her health during the

summer remained such as to give Forbes some anxiety,

while he himself also was far from well. A short visit


to Mr. Austen of Chilworth Manor, Surrey, occupied the

latter part of July, and served to send back the Professor

with renewed energy to the dusty boxes in Jermyn

Street. While at Chilworth he found time to super-

intend the packing of the fine collection of Devonian

fossils which Mr. Austen had presented to the national

collections in Craig’s Court. This done, he left Mrs.

Forbes under Mrs. Austen’s care and returned to town,

putting up at his old bachelor’s quarters in Edward Street.

The fossils hitherto unpacked in the Jermyn Street

building were chiefly from secondary rocks, but the list

was in many respects incomplete. To augment it, and at

the same time accomplish some important palaeontological

work among the upper oolites, Forbes wished to spend

the latter part of the summer, and. as much of the autumn

as could be spared, in examining the secondary rocks in

the field. One of the surveyors, Mr. Bristow, was en -

gaged at the time in Dorsetshire, and Sir Flenry de la

Beche consented that Forbes should join him. It was the

middle of August before this arrangement was carried

out. In the meantime, having no prospect of being him-

self able to attend the British Association this year, he

nevertheless commenced as usual beating up among his

friends for papers for the Meeting. It was with great

reluctance that he felt himself compelled to abandon all

hope of being at the Association, for the Meeting was to

be held at Birmingham, and apart from other attractions,

the “ Red Lions” would appear in great force to hold

their festivities in the town where they first saw the light.

But considerations of expense had sufficient weight to

decide the matter. “ To come from Dorsetshire up to


the meeting,” he wrote to Dr. Percy, “ would be too much

of a journey, and too great an expense, so that I quite

give up all intention of being at Birmingham. The ex-

penses of furnished house-rent, etc. etc., in London, scien-

tific societies, subscriptions, etc. (unless my salary be

raised to a respectable sum, or some equivalent be given

in time to enable me to pull up), will, I fear, never admit

of my maturing family expeditions to associations. Hav-

ing a great respect for Birmingham, as the birthplace of

the ‘Reds/ I cannot but regret that such must be the

case/' As the time for his departure for the south-west

drew near, there seemed a possibility that the trip to

Birmingham might be achieved after all. So he wrote

again to Dr. Percy, August 15th :—

“ I am still in London, and none the better of being

so. Mrs. Forbes is staying with Mrs. Austen, near Guild-

ford, and I trust that before ten days are over we shall

be down with Bristow in Dorsetshire.

“ If I come to the Birmingham meeting, I shall come

alone. It will depend upon some business which must

call me to London in September, and which I will en-

deavour to get so arranged as to suit my visiting Bir-

mingham. In that case I will endeavour to get a quiet

bed at the original ‘ Red Lion/ If I don’t come, I will

send not a song but a dirge.”

Towards the end of August he left London, and pro-

ceeded with Mrs. Forbes to the Dorsetshire coast. On

arriving there, he wrote :—

“ West Lulworth, Wareham, Dorsetshire, 21th August 1849 .

“ Dear Ramsay,—You will see by the above address

that I am down among the oolites, etc.


“ Gapper 1 joins me this week, and Bristow and I

meet in a day or two. This locality is, from what I

can see, a line place to make up our cretaceous collec-

tions for starting. But we have just come, and I can’t

say much on the geology yet. We are lodged in the

smallest possible thatched cottage, which we have at

the prodigious rate of twelve shillings a week. Gapper

took it for us. We brought our own sheets and knives

with us, and do very well. It is a most out-of-the-world

sort of place, but with magnificent cliff scenery almost

at our door.”

It was still doubtful whether the law business which

necessitated his presence in London would be arranged

before the meeting of the Association. In this uncer-

tainty he had received, and been forced to decline several

invitations from friends in Birmingham who wished him

to accept their hospitality during the meeting. “ I can-

not make a family excursion,” he said, “ and to leave mywife in this out-of-the-world place would not be fair.”

A few days, however, after his arrival at the coast, he

wrote to Dr. Percy :—

“ September 1 Oth.—As there is a prospect of the time

for my private business in town suiting the time of the

Association meeting, I can now say that I will be there.

I shall leave this to-morrow afternoon, but must be in

London all Thursday. I will come to Birmingham by

the early train on Friday morning, and will drive to the

reception rooms, and there leave my bag till I turn up

quarters. I write this to set your mind at rest about mycoming, and to ask you to enrol me in whatever party

1 One of the fossil-collectors of the Survey.

45 G MEMOIK OF CHAP. XIII.

you and Henry go witli on Saturday, i.e., if you visit the

caves at ‘ Dudley by water.’

“ Mrs. Forbes visits her aunt at Lymington whilst I amaway. She sends best regards. Give mine to Mrs. Percy.”

The papers which he read at this meeting were :—

1. On a remarkable monstrosity of a Vinca.

2. On the varieties of the Wild Carrot.

3. On the Genera of the British Patellacese.

4. “On Beroe Cucumis, and the genera or species of

Ciliograda which have been founded upon it a paper

in which he described the occurrence of egg-like gem-

mules on different parts of the Beroe, and pointedly

dwelt on the varied appearance of the animal when pro-

ducing these gemmules, its changes of form and colour

being so great that somewhere about fifteen species, dis-

tributed under four if not six genera, had been con-

structed by naturalists out of this one creature.

The “Red Lions” met as usual, and celebrated with

great effect their tenth anniversary. Forbes never failed

to chant at their annual dinner at least one new song,

and that which he contributed to this meeting was called

the “ Song of the Beroe,” suggested, doubtless, by the

direction given to his thoughts during the preparation of

the paper just referred to.

He returned immediately to Dorsetshire, and wrote

to Mr. Thompson, October 4th :

—

“I write this from our rural (surveying) retirement,

where my wife and I are ensconced in a very minute

thatched cottage, out of the way of the world and every-

thing else. You will have heard from Hyndman, pro-

bably, that I was at Birmingham. Having business to


do in London at that time, 1 killed two birds with one

stone, and went to the Meeting;leaving Mrs. Forbes on

the way at her uncle’s, Captain Rooke, at Lymington.

“ The Meeting was a very good one, and went off

very well;the natural history Section was fully attended,

and altogether there was not the slightest symptom of a

decline in the prospects of the Association. Sir Robert

Peel did not show, and the honours of the neighbourhood

were done by Lord Wrottesley, and well done.

“I am hard at work when the days are rainy, and in

the evenings with the Mollusca, to do which I have

brought books, specimens, etc., all down with me. I find,

however, that I have forgotten to make a note of what

Patterson says on the consumption of Limpets in Ireland,

and wish to refer to it immediately. Could you kindly

state in a few words the purport of it (and the figures),

as I should not like to omit it.

“ We shall be here till the middle or end of Novem-

ber, perhaps later. The coast scenery is very fine and

well worth seeing, and the natural history and botany

very interesting. We are close to the sea-side.

“ If Maguire murdered me he has certainly hit you

oft' to a nicety in the portrait, I am to sit again.”

At tins time his friend and coHeao'ue, Mr. Jukes,

married, and to Mr. Ramsay, who sent a description of

the wedding, Forbes wrote, October 7th :—

“ Dear Ramsay,—We are very much obliged to youlor the picture, so well drawn, of Jukes’s wedding, which

must have gone off famously. The best wish we can

give is, a similar one to yourself. I hope you kissed the

bridesmaids.


“ Where is Jukes and his Missus ? We want to

write to them.

“ Bristow seems determined to finish this country

before starting, and as the Purbeck side is comparatively

easy, may do it before Christmas. In one of the bays

near here there is a fine clear section right through the

Dorsetshire cretaceous series, and the beds below down

to the Kimmeridge. We mean to go over it together,

bed by bed, and construct a vertical table, with the dis-

tribution of fossils minutely on it. Gapper is hard at

work with me.

“ Living in a cottage with a wife of one’s own, and

no ceremony or callers, is such a happy state of existence

that I feel sure Jukes has done right, and wish you re-

solved to do the same. Looking over some old scraps

of mine a day or two ago, I came on a poem you have

never seen, and send you it.

“With best regards from Mrs. Forbes, ever yours,

E. F.”

To Mr. Jukes himself, Forbes sent a congratulatory

epistle, beginning with an illuminated initial letter, formed

by the tail of a red lion which stands in the centre of a

triangle— a characteristic

blending of the old “ oin-

eromathic” idea with that

of the more recent “ Red

Lions.”

“ Lulwokth Cove, near Wareham,

Dorset, October 19, 1849-

/ ear Jukes, and brother bene-

dictus,— I take infinite disgrace and shame to 111} self


1

'(

for not having before this written to congratulate

you on entering among the ranks of the blessed. This

is the more disgraceful on my part, since it is now above

a year since I have tasted the happy cup of matrimony,

and have found it grow sweeter every day. When a

year of your married life shall have rolled away, you

will find the same sweet taste increasing, although now,

just as I did at your period of development, doubtless,

you fancy that you could not be happier than you are.

I congratulate you, old fellow, on your choice, and wish

every possible accumulation of felicity on you and your

wife, for many a long year to come. I wish

could or would join our ranks, so that he might be a

happier man than he is, longing as he does daily to take

to himself a wife.

“ Ever since Brummagem, I have been in Dorsetshire,

among Purbecks and Portlands, chalks and greensands.

The country is extremely interesting, and very pictur-

esque. We are located in a cottage about one-fourtli

the dhnensions of that which we inhabited at Llangollen,

just big enough for me and my wife and maid to sleep

in. We wait upon ourselves, and do the cooking

amongst us, independent of pickling mushrooms, mak-ing ketchups, and pickling samphire, which occupations

are the chief amusements of the village. There are no

talkable people within ten miles, except a coast-guard

officer, and a pleasant parson, three miles off. Now,having told you our state and condition, I hope, whenyou have a spare half hour, to hear of yours, and withbest respects to Mrs. Jukes, remain ever, dear Jukes,

affectionately yours, “ Edward Forbes.”

460 MEMOIll OF CHAP. XIII.

Tlie scientific results of this residence in Dorsetshire

are not the least important of Edward Forbes’s contribu-

tions to palaeontology. He proved that the Hastings

sand contained fossils which linked it with the super-

posed chalk, and that the Purbeck strata, which had

hitherto been classed with the Wealden, really belonged

to the Oolitic series. He showed, moreover, that these

Purbeck beds were capable of a threefold division, each

of the groups being characterized by a distinct fauna

;

that the lines of demarcation between these groups were

sharp, and yet were not lines of physical disturbance,

while lines of disturbed beds showed no accompanying

change of organic remains. He also made the important

discovery that air-breathing mollusca lived at the period

of the Purbeck beds, and inferred from them the pro-

bable existence of mammalian remains. He announces

his discoveries in successive letters to Mr. Ramsay.

Thus, on October 28 th, he says :—

“ Dear Ramsay,—You are such a long way off, that

it seems impossible to write to you, or I would have

answered your last before now.

“ Gapper tells me that you mention coming this way

in November. What are your plans, for I would gladly

avail myself of the opportunity of going over the sec-

tions, etc., with you, if it be your intention to run over

Bristow’s work, as to do so would be a great help to-

wards my full understanding of the fossils. If that

were arranged any time ‘ before Christmas, I have

plenty to do hereabouts, and in Swanage (whither I must

move) before you come, and when you come, I would

break up my camp, wherever it might be, and Mrs. P


would go to Lymington to visit her aunt, whilst I was

on the Survey with you. Write me your notions.

“ I am veiy well pleased with the results of my work

here, so far, and veiy glad, for our Museum and Survey’s

sake, I came. The ‘ geology of England ’ may be ‘ done’

by the old fellows, but it is not overdone yet. I have

been working over every section of the Purbecks in the

district, creeping over the beds with glass at eye, looking

to the minutest traces of life, and its changes, in those

curious fresh-water strata. As the tracking of change

in fresh-water beds has mainly to be made by observa-

tion of Cyprides, and such almost microscopic forms,

nothing but personal inspection can give the clue. So

far, I fancy, I have made out a complete change in

the sets of forms of minute animal life in the different

series of fresh-water beds which are separated by marine

or estuary beds in the Purbeck. Moreover, I have found

no fewer than seven species belonging to existing genera

of fresh-water pulmonifera in these beds (species of

Lymnea,Physa, and Planorbis), 1 a race of animals, the

(supposed) non-existence of which during the secondary

1 Those air-breathing gasteropods were

found in a dark slialy stratum or dirt

bed, from eight inches to a foot in thick-

ness. Forbes justly dwelt with empha-sis on this discovery, which was indeed

one of the most interesting made in his

day. He remarked at the time to Mr.

Bristow, that if ever mammalian re-

mains were found in the Purbeck series,

it would be in this stratum lying be-

tween the middle and lower series.

Since this prediction, Mr. Brodie, andafter him Mr. Beckles, have disinterred

the remains of reptiles and insecti-

vorous mammals. See Quo.rt. Jour.

Geol. Soc. vol. xiii. p. 261. An amusingsong written by Forbes for the “ Red

Lion” dinner at Ipswich in 1851, cau-

tions geologists against reasoning too

much on Negative Facts, and contains

the following reference to the Purbeckdiscoveries mentioned in the text :

—

“ Down among the Purbecks deep

enough,

A Physa and Planorbis

Were grubbed last year out of fresh-

water stuff,

By Bristow and E. Forbes.

(Agassiz just had given his bail,

’Twas adverse to creation,

That there should live pulmoni-ferous snail,

Before the chalk formation.)


epoch has called forth not a few prematurely wise com-

ments in geological works. I have also found two, if

not three species of the genus Vcilvccta, hitherto only ter-

tiary and recent. These are palaeontological results of

some value. The end of this week's work has resulted

in a little discovery in these beds of considerable interest,

and very unexpected. I have found a thin band of shales

of marine origin in the midst of that part of the fresh-

water series which comes between the ‘ cinder’ bed

(oyster band) and the corbula bed, filled with a well

marked, and of course new, species of Pecten, reminding

one in the most striking manner of the Pecten papiy-

raceus bands in the coal formation, and for which a

parallel was wanting.

“ Is Sir Henry going to remain in town all this

autumn ?

“ As my wife sends a line herewith I won’t give her

regards.—Ever, etc., E. F.”

To Mr. Van Voorst he writes on 6 th November :

—

“ I take up one of those rarities, a fair-sized sheet of

paper, to write in reply to your last, and to make sure of

writing a fair-sized letter.

“ It is a great pleasure to hear of the good effects of

Wimbledon air upon your body, and of the fattening

thereof. The Dorsetshire sea air has had a like effect

upon me, and I burst a button or two eveiy three days.

By this time I intended to have been moving London-

wards, but geological work of such fresh interest has

turned up within the last month that I am loath to

leave till it is done, and probably will not get back till

some time in December. We are very happy and snug


ill our little cottage here, and, I fancy, abstinence from

dinner parties and all the luxuries of town, with early

hours for bed-going, is getting me a new lease of good

health. The places here on the coast are wonderfully

healthy, so much so, that to paraphrase the Yankee jest,

“the people have to move to the other side of the

country when they wish to die/”

“10 th November.—Dear Ramsay,—Since I last

wrote you I have been thinking and dreaming of nothing

but Purbecks, and will end, if I go on so, by growing

into one of those slender columns of Purbeck marble

which adorn old monuments in old cathedrals. Last

week I worked over the Ridgeway section and quarries

about Upway with Bristow with most satisfactory results.

I] I shall rile Ibbetson terribly by telling him what he

| missed in his section, which, besides, runs the Portlands

far into the Purbecks. The exact division between the

two I have made out precisely both here and at Upway.

In all the sections there is a precise line, where out-and-

out marine beds come in contact with out-and-out fresh-

water beds. Of course such a succession implies an in-

terval in time. The nature of the beds at contact, for

the first time, has been demonstrated by fossils beyond

question. I now find my marine ‘pecten-bed’ every-

where, with many more marine fossils in it. My list of

Purbeck invertebrate species, is now between fifty and

sixty, an enormous fauna, for what in the main is a fresh-

water and estuary series. The published lists enumerate

twelve. I am measuring up the beds and making a

minute section.

“The best part of the work is probably to come. From

MEMOIR OF CHAP. XIII.464

what I have found here, it seems almost certain (strange

as it may appear) that Fitton and Mantell constructed

(in the Swanage district) lower greensand out of Hast-

ings sand, weald clay out of the Purbeck marble series

(my upper fresh-water), and Hastings sand out of my“ upper marine” sandy beds ! ! ! Bristow applauds the

idea, and says his measurements will back it. We shall

see presently. What a triumph it would be for old

Webster’s memory !

“ I have written to Sir Henry about these results.

He urges remaining to complete them for the present.

“ Best regards from my wife.—Ever most sincerely,


“ 25tk November.—Dear, Ramsay,—This is Sunday

night, Survey letter day, and I am sitting all alone by

myself over a fading fire, and holding my nose, because

of a dead rat which is being laid out under the floor

somewhere, in consequence of the women having laid out

poisoned bread and butter for the beasts—more shame to

them ! You will ask why sitting alone % I am sorry to

say for a very sad reason. By this time I intended to

have been working away at Swanage and nearly done.

On Sunday and Monday, Bristow came to go over the

Purbecks with me here, and compare notes. On Tues-

day I was getting my bag ready for a start, when my

wife was suddenly taken ill, and has been in her bed

ever since with fever—very alarming and severe till

Thursday night, but the doctor I sent for got her round,

and she is now fast recovering. I hope she will be able

to move by the end of the week. She got your letter

yesterday, and was greatly pleased at hearing.


“ When you say that the line of division between

the Purbecks and Portlands is exceedingly well marked

in the Isle of Portland, you speak of the supposed line

(I thought the same here for the first two months), as

marked by the dirt-beds and physical features. One of

my points is proving how far exactly the Purbecks

extend downwards, and the result is, that all the so-

called “ caps’ are Purbeck without a question, the fresh-

water beds with Purbeck fossils lying directly upon the

Portland beds with marine fossils, though strangely

alike in mineral character and consolidation. Of this

I have satisfied Bristow. I fancy the result will be

that in colouring Portland Isle, all must be coloured as

Purbeck on the map;not a thin coat merely, but good

fifteen feet of Purbeck all over. I have made a series

of drawings, to show how this affects the scenery. There

is a very curious physical phenomenon in the lower

beds of the Purbeck here, possibly noticed by Webster,

but I have never heard of it. It is the most singular

mince-meat smashery of about eight feet of shales and

chert-bands, causing no interruption in the fauna, and

lying between undisturbed beds. It does not occur at

Upway, but is very striking at Durdle, Lulworth, and

Worbarrow, an extent of seven or eight miles. It is

difficult to understand such a break-up between quiet

beds of the same series.

“ I have just made another great find in the fossil

way, viz., Gyrogonites (chara seeds) in the fresh-water

limestones here. They have hitherto been only found

in Tertiary fresh waters. It certainly is wonderfully

strange that, whilst there has been so great a change in

2 G


the marine invertebrate fauna of the oolitic times, as

compared with the present, that of the old Purbeck fresh-

water beds is such, that, were it now revivified, it would

quite accord with the existing state of things;

or, if we

had not sure evidence, by superposition or rather infra-

position, it would be quite impossible, a 'priori, to assert

that the Purbecks were not Tertiaries. These considera-

tions open out long vistas of reflection.

“ The thickness of the Purbecks here is within a foot

or two of 150 feet. 1 In old Conybeare’s day they were

reckoned at 300—I don’t know how, and don’t think

that they are thicker than I have seen them. Sir Henry

and the Dean2(if my notion be right) make them only

forty feet in this district, which is far under the mark,

but easily accounted for as some of the sections are

imperfect, the top-beds being squeezed out in a line of

fault, whilst they reckoned the thickness from the dirt-

bed below. The sections at this place are so clear that

there can be no mistake.

“ Reeks writes me that the Museum has moved bodily

at last. I hope this will be the prelude to an effective

re-organization and to some plan for the use of the

theatre, etc.”

“Dec. 2 cl—Dear Ramsay,—My last would cross

your last (do not two letters when they cross produce

additional notes or young letters ?) I think I mentioned

what my arrangements were, but, to make sure, send a

line now. In a couple of days I hope to get away from

i The Lulworth Cove section is about

180 feet, as shown in Mr. Bristow’s Sec-

tion. Horizontal Sections of Geological

Survey, sheet 66.

2 Dr. Buckland, Dean of Westminster.

See their Papers on the Geology of the

Weymouth District. Trans. Geol. Soc.

2d Series, iv. 1.

1S49. EDWARD FORBES.

>1

U

467

this, as the doctor thinks that my wife will be well

enough to move by Wednesday, and I am arranging

accordingly. She has not, however, been out of the

house yet, but has providentially got well much faster

than I hoped. It was, however, a very serious illness.

The tailor of the village was seized with the same fever,

and died in six days though a strong man. Had I not

given calomel in time, I fear to think of the result, the

more so now, after receiving a letter from Oldham

yesterday with an account of the sad death of poor

Medlicott’s young wife. He was married only about

the same time with Jukes.

“ My plans are these : Mrs. F. is to travel on by herself,

resting at Lymington for three or four days, and then

going on to Mrs. Austen for as many. I will pick her up

as I pass by Austen s, and bring her to London with me,

where we are to stay during Christmas with her mother,

who has taken a house in St. Jolm's Wood somewhere. In

the meantime, she and her mother propose to run about

looking for quarters, and when they have found desir-

able ones, to call me in to consult, . . . By the begin-

ning of the year we hope to find a nest, either a home

like last year, or (if such a thing can be got on moderate

terms) a suite of rooms sufficient for all purposes, and

seeing friends, as near the Museum as possible. During

Christmas week I mean to be chiefly at work getting to-

gether illustrations and notes for my Royal Institution

lecture, the subject of which will be a useful one to work

up, as bearing upon my projected Purbeck memoir. One

of our earliest calls during that week will be to see the

Playfairs. . . .


“ They say it is an ill wind that blows nobody good :

my poor wife's illness has been no impediment to mywork, but rather has added some very material data

;for

in consequence of the wet weather, the clays have been

so thoroughly washed that some beds in which I was

unable to find any but large fossils have now shown their

small ones, and very important they have proved as

bearing on this investigation. I have found pulmonifer-

ous mollusca in the highest beds—a point of consequence,

since I now have them in the beginning, middle, and

end of the series. During the last few days I have

added the genus Bithynia (i. e., paludince, with calcare-

ous opercula) to the Purbeck, and consequently, to the

secondary fauna. Strange to say, but agreeable with all

else here, the species closely resembles an existing one.

The end will be what I predicted in a paper on the sub-

ject in the Annals of Natural History nine years ago,

—-that we cannot employ fresh-water mollusca, as we

can marine, to distinguish formations of different geo-

logical epochs;consequently, that we must depend on

superposition almost entirely for determining the posi-

tion of fresh-water formations.

“ I have laid down my section with all the distribu-

tion, etc., and the nature of the water, whether salt,

brackish, slightly brackish, or purely fresh, on the ruled

railway paper—taking a scale of two feet to the inch,

which enables the phenomena to be fully displayed. It

looks very pretty, and will especially do so when clearly

copied out. I shall be able to give the distribution of

the vertebrata as well as the invertebrata, I have felt

very great pleasure in this work, as it is the very best


example that could be given of the importance of minute

palaeontology applied to geology, and I hope the Survey .

will be pleased with it.

“ My wife sends best regards. Ever, etc., E. F.”

As arranged, Mrs. Forbes went to Lymington and he

to Swanage. Two days afterwards he began to feel un-

well, and mentioned the circumstance in a note to his

wife. On the fifth day his illness had increased so much

that he could only scrawl a few words, “ Dearest love,

come.” Mrs. Forbes started immediately, and on arriving

at Swanage late that night, found him very seriously ill

with scarlet fever—the same disease which had attacked

herself at Lulworth. He continued ill for two or three

weeks, and was kindly attended by Dr. Charles Willcox,

who first visited him as a brother naturalist, but on being

shown to his room, found him in an alarming state of fever.

The patience and gentleness exhibited by Forbes during

this illness, as well as in every other illness of Ins life, were

very great. He never complained, and seemed only to

think of the trouble he occasioned, especially to his wife.

When sufficiently recruited he returned to London,

and found that the Craig’s Court household had transferred

itself to Jermyn Street, where, as he said, nothing could

be heard save “ noisy hammers making ferocious music in

the vasty halls of the Museum.” Much had been done in

his absence, and though a year or more might still elapse

before everything could be completed, yet the rate of pro-

gress was rapid. “ The Museum is progressing fast,” he

wrote to Mr. Thompson, “ so fast that I dread having to

make an election between it and Edinburgh before the


latter place is ripe, in which, case I should he obliged,

under existing circumstances, to take the former.”

There was, of course, not a little in the way of arrears

to be worked up among the fossils. The new light

which his researches in Dorset had thrown upon the

upper oolite, enabled him to proceed with greater con-

fidence in the construction of the fossil fists. There had

also been collected, under his own eye, an important

series of fossils from the Purbeck beds and associated

strata of the Dorsetshire coast, and these had now to be

unpacked and examined. To save time by being not

far from the Museum, he took a furnished house in

Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, and established him-

self there for the rest of the winter.

To be under the necessity of frequently changing

one’s place of abode is, for the most part, irksome enough,

but especially is it so to the man of science who must

needs accumulate books, papers, manuscripts, specimens,

and instruments of various kinds, and to the success of

whose studies undisturbed quiet is almost absolutely

essential. With Edward Forbes, as with the other mem-

bers of the Survey, this nomadic fife was unavoidable.

A large part of the year had, of course, to be passed in

the field, shifting from place to place, according to the

requirements of the Survey. The salaries were not ade-

quate to the expense of a permanent town-house, and

the winter months, which were usually spent in London,

could only be passed in temporary residences. In Forbes's

case it was even worse than with his colleagues, notwith-

standing his wife’s fortune, for his college lectures com-

pelled him to be in town longer and during the most


expensive season, and sometimes lie had to return for

them even after he had gone down to Survey work in the

country. Hence his complaints of the insufficiency of the

salaries, and hence, too, one cause, though a minor one, of

his anxiety to gain at last the Edinburgh professorship.

He had a strong conviction of the necessity for

scientific men, in official stations, maintaining a high

social position. His marriage, although it gave greater

prominence to this feeling, certainly did not produce it.

We have seen how exalted even in his student days were

his notions about the intrinsic dignity of science. In

the University Maga, for distance, the sentiment found

emphatic utterance, and it gave tone to all the canons

and aims of the“ Universal Brotherhood." From that

early period of his career on to the end, Forbes never

ceased to proclaim by bis conduct, as well as in words,

that the pursuit of science was a high and honourable

vocation, and that its followers were entitled to no mean

place in the social scale.

Two other features in his character should be viewed

in connexion with this high estimate of the dignity of a

scientific avocation, and as explanatory of one of the

features of his married life. In the first place, his love

of society was intense, and from his earliest days it had

been so. Unless when actually at work, he cared not to

be long alone. Solitude was ever irksome, and when his

work was over, he entered again with a deep relish into

the society of his friends. In a lonely wayside inn, for

lack of other company, he would spin long yarns with

the landlord, or mingle readily with any knot of travel-

lers that might chance to appear. Sometimes he was in

472 MEMOIR OF GIIAP. XIJT.

this way brought into odd situations. On one occasion,

for instance, he was coming down the Rhine, and met,

tor the first time, on board the steamer some pleasant

English companions. After dinner one of the party

called for a bottle of wine;when this was discussed,

another individual ordered a second, and so it went

round. Forbes had barely money enough in his pocket

to carry him to England, but on his turn coming he

found it impossible to resist the temptation, and boldly

called for his bottle. When the reckoning came, the

tourist who sat next Forbes found to his dismay that he

had neglected to cash some bills at the last town, and so

had no funds. He communicated the fact to our natu-

ralist, who, of course, warmly sympathized. Another

member of the party, however, came to their relief, and

advanced the requisite sum, only stipulating that they

should meet him that day week in his chambers at the

Temple. At the hour appointed they appeared, and

found a smoking dinner prepared for then1 reception .

1

The other feature in Forbes’s character which should be

taken in connexion with this love of society, and the de-

sire to uphold the social influence of a man of science, was

one which he himself would probably have been the last

to admit. Over and above his conception of the abstract

dignity of science, there ran through liis life a suppressed

instinctive consciousness of his own intellectual superio-

rity. This feeling was never obtrusive. It manifested

itself rather in deeds than in words, and only if his own

position needed to be upheld, as when, on entering the

Survey, he stipulated that none should control his actions

1 This anecdote was related by Forbes to his intimate friend, Mr. Godwin Austen.


save the Director-General. His impatience under any

intermeddling with what he considered his proper duty,

and his frequent hursts of indignation at the “red-tape”

routine which trammels the action of Government depart-

ments, sprang from the same source. But he never in

his intercourse with others betrayed any consciousness of

superiority, “ except,” says Mr. Jukes, “ in rare instances

under excitement, and then his kindness of heart, and

cordiality of disposition, prevented its ever losing him a

friend.” His self-esteem, though strong, was thus com-

pletely subdued, and at no time obstructed the heartiest

sympathy with others. There was no tinge of jealousy

in it. He always rejoiced in the higher intellectual dis-

plays of his friends, taking a noble pride in them without

caring, or even thinking for a moment, whether or not

they surpassed his own.

During his bachelor life in London he had mingled

freely in society, and his presence was everywhere coveted.

But the hospitality of course lay for the most part on

one side only. After his marriage, however, lie deemed

himself called on to make it, as far as might be, reciprocal.

His strong social propensities, combined with the desire

to maintain the independence of science, by keeping up

a high social position of his own, induced him to live

much in public, and to incur not a little expense. In so

doing he went fully as far as prudence could justify. Toaugment his income he found himself compelled to under-

take a vast amount of extraneous literary and scientific

“hack-work;” even then, his receipts from all sources

did not more than cover his outlay, and the time con-

sumed in this way made sad inroads on his leisure.

474 MEMOIR Ob' CHAR XIII.

The subject which he fixed upon for his lecture this

spring to the Eoyal Institution, was, “ The distribution

of fresh-water animals and plants.” A fortnight before

the date of the lecture, he wrote to Mr. Thompson for

information :—

“23 cl February 1850 .—My object is to show that

all we know of their distribution, goes to confirm the

views I had previously put forward at the Eoyal Institu-

tion. My points are :

—

“ ls£. With respect to fresh-water species;to show

that whilst their difference can be accounted for mainly

by causes now in action, there is still a residue whose

present distribution must be referred back to epochs of

geological change.

“ 2 d. That natural genera of fresh-water animals and

plants have as distinct areas of their own as species have.

I illustrate this especially by a map which I have con-

structed of the distribution of Siluroid fishes.

“ 3 cl. That the formation of new terrestrial areas, in

consequence of geological changes in the form of a

country, and consequently of new systems of drainage,

has always called forth the creative energy in a new

type of form.

“ 4th. That when we study the distribution of fresh-

water generic types in time, we find that in certain

groups of animals (as molluscs) there has not been that

variation of the type idea which we see in others as

fishes. Curious geological considerations result.

“ Now there is a point in connexion with the first

of these heads upon which I want your advice as an

ornithologist. The flora of the United States has, as


you probably know, a considerable number of plants

identical with European species. When these are ana-

lysed, there results this resolution of the elements :—

“ l. Species of the boreal-Scandinavian type, living

chiefly on high mountains, and originating from the

glacial-epoch flora,

“2. Species introduced by man without question.

“3. A few miniature forms, which may have either

been transmitted along the coasts of the glacial epoch,

or transported by currents at a later period.

“ 4. A considerable residue of species which cannot

be referred to any of the previous heads.

“ My business with you is about this residue No. 4.

When I came to analyse them, I found that, with scarcely

an exception, they were aquatic species. This is a very

curious result, and the only way in which it occurs to

me to explain it is, that this community of aquatic forms

between the continents is due to the agency of migratory

birds. But I should not like to speak publicly on the

notion without hearing the opinions first of some able

ornithologist, like yourself, who has worked the subject

of migration. Will you then kindly give me your ideas

on this text V ’ 1

The Botany Class this year was better attended than

it had ever been. In a letter to Mr. Ramsay, Forbes

i remarks— “ I am fatigued by my morning lectures;

I

j

have a larger class than ever before, having no fewer

d than seventy-four students.

“ The Red Lions met last week very pleasantly.”

1 His friend and colleague, Mr. Ram- to greater advantage. He lectured

!>say, who was present at this lecture, clearly and boldly to a large and atten-

I remarks that “Forbes never appeared tive audience.”


The summer, with its lectures, and fossil-work amongthe growing galleries of the Jermyn Street Museum,gradually wore away, and brought round again the

meeting of the British Association, which this year washeld in Edinburgh. Before leaving London he wrote

to Mr. Ramsay, “ I am coming up with my Purbeck

story and the third Decade. 1 I hope you and Jukes

will stand forward with good matter. The Geological

Section will be a very different one from its usual

condition. Neither Lyell, Horner, nor Sir Henry are

going. Murchison is to preside; Sedgwick will be

there. My impression is that the debates of the Section

will be conducted by the younger men, and that a

change in its aspect for the better will commence/’ 2

The papers read by Forbes at this meeting were :—

1. On the Succession of Strata and Distribution of

Organic Remains in the Dorsetshire Purbecks. 3

1 Tlie Palaeontological publications of

the Survey were issued in Decades, con-

taining ten plates each. The third part

referred to above was devoted to the

illustration of some forms of Asteriadas

and Echinidae.2 This letter, like others written in

his later years, has a characteristic sig-

nature. It was stated in a previous

page that, when writing to a Brother,

he often coined an adverb out of the

triangle, and signed himself “ Yours

Aly.” Here he carries the same idea to

a ludicrous extent, actually metamor-

phosing a rampant lion into an adverb,

with ly coming out of its mouth, as if

he had said, in so many words, that he

bore to his friend all the sympathy and

good-will that burned in the breast of a

real Red Lion.3 The true classification of the Pur-

beck strata, as shown in previous pages,

was first worked out by Edward Forbes,

in conjunction with Mr. Bristow and the

fossil-collector, Mr. Gapper, during the

latter part of the year 1849. The de-

tailed structure of the group was then

elaborated, and the original draft of the

palaeontological subdivisions still exists

in Forbes’s handwriting, and has been

made use of by Mr. Bristow in construct-

ing the vertical sections of the Purbeck

strata (Vertical and Horizontal Sections

of the Geological Survey.) The only

account published by Forbes himself

was this short paper to the British As-

sociation, as he reserved the full descrip-

tions until those of the Tertiary fluvio-

marine strata of the Isle of Wight had

been worked out by him. Unfortun-

ately for science, he died before either

account was completed.

This short description, read before the

British Association in 1850, was pub-

lished in the Report for that year. In

1852, a small pamphlet on the Geology

of the. Isle of Purbeck, was written by

the Rev. John H. Austen. That gen-

1850. EDWARD FORBES.A hr H4 t I

2. On the European species of Echinus, and the

peculiarities of their distribution.

Leaving Edinburgh, after the meeting was over, he

went with Professor Goodsir and Mr. Macandrew on a

cruise among the Western Islands. They coasted along

the rocky shores of Mull, Skye, and the Lewis, dipping

I

the dredge or the tow-net as opportunity offered. The

results of the cruise were of considerable value. They

added not a few fossils, and nearly twenty living species,

to the British fauna, while, at the same time, they obtained

a valuable clue to the geology of the Hebrides in the

estuary beds of Loch Staffin, and the discovery, for the

first time in Scotland, of true Oxford clay. 1

On reaching London again, he wrote to Mr. Ram-

ilsay:—

“ Jermyn Street, September 4.

“ Instead of going direct from the Hebrides to Ire-

land, I came on here last week. I was anxious to see

how my wife was, and to set work agoing in the Museum.

I found the former much better than the latter. The

Museum has not advanced an inch towards completion

ill since I left. The man and the boy from Nelson’s pillar

tleman had enjoyed the advantage of

Forbes’s company, and that of other

members of the Survey, during manyexcursions in the Purbeck district. Hehas omitted to mention this fact, how-ever, and to explain the close resem-

blance of his palaeontological subdivi-

sions to those previously made out byEdward Forbes. While alluding to

earlier writers on the geology of Pur-

beck, he also omits to notice the paper

published in the Report of the British

Association. Forbes used to say, that

he reserved his exposure of this pam-phlet until his own memoir on the Pur-

beck district was ready for the press.

But this memoir, as has been already

remarked, was never written, and it

appears only due to the memory of the

great naturalist that these facts should

here be put on record, more especially

as Mr. Austen in a subsequent paper

(read before the Purbeck Society, 9th

November 1855), has again ignored the

name of the man to whom science is

indebted for the first clear exposition of

the palaeontological phenomena of the

Isle of Purbeck.

1 Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. vrt. 105

;

also Jameson’s Edinburgh Phil. Jour.

for October 1850.

478 MEMOIR OF CHAP. XIU.

seem to have removed here. There is nobody else in

the shape of workmen, and everything is at a stand-

still; indeed worse, for the cases, having been built of

green wood, in too great a hurry, are cracking in every

direction. I am in despair. I fully hoped before the

new year to have displayed a series of fossils from one

end of the geological scale to the other. . . .

“I was very successful in the Hebrides. The exa-

mination of the Loch Staffin brackish-water strata will

work in famously with the Purbecks. They are really

oolitic, but not where Murchison placed them.

“ I start for Dublin to-morrow, where I expect to

meet Sir Henry.

“ If you knew the delight of meeting a fond little

wife, after a six weeks absence, you would get married

immediately. Edward Forbes.”

After a series of hurried excursions for three weeks

in Ireland with Sir Henry de la Beche, he returned to

London at the end of September. Shortly after this, he

paid another brief visit to Swanage in Dorsetshire, to

clear up some points in the geology of the Purbeck

strata, and then, coming back once more to London,

settled down for the winter. Immediately on his re-

turn he wrote

—

“ Jebmyn Street, 21s£ Oct. I860.

“ Dear Ramsay,—I hear you have returned to the

pool of Bethesda 1to wash yourself geologically clean of

the sins you may have committed in Ireland. My wife

1 A village near the Penrhyn slate quarries, about seven miles from Bangor, is

called “ Bethesda.”


has been intending to write to you for some time back,

but in these days of marrying and giving in marriage, it

is difficult to find out where any man is. She wants

much to hear from you a full, true, and particular

account of the dying words and confessions of Thomas

Oldham, Professor,what the bride was like, where

they went to, and how they mean to move about. Will

you favour me with a screed directed to 76,Upper

Berkeley Street, Portman Square, where we have just

imbedded ourselves for the winter ?

“ I have much to write you anent geological matters,

but will not do it till I hear how and where you are.

The Museum progresses rather more rapidly, and there

are signs of cases being in preparation.

“ I have just been at Swanage, all alone, with very

satisfactory results. I must go again, however, when

Bristow is there, and perhaps you might manage, some

time in January or thereabouts, to run down with me,

and look at some points of the greatest consequence to

British geology.

“ With best regards from my missus, believe me,

ever, etc., E. FT

The summer and autumnal rambles being now fairly

over, and the surveyors having already shown symptomsof preparing to reappear within the bounds of civilisa-

tion (so Forbes spoke of their return to London at the

close of the year), he could begin to address himself to

the work of the winter. And truly he had undertaken

enough to keep his hands fully employed. There was,

of course, the fossil work in the Museum, which, in one


way or another, kept him at Jermyn Street every day.

But besides the arranging and describing of specimens

for the Museum, he had the “ British Mollusca ” to carry

on, in conjunction with Mr. Hanley. Most of his letters

to Mr. Thompson at this time are to a large extent

requests for names and localities of shells known to that

naturalist, and necessary to the completeness of the

work. In addition to this, he found leisure in his

evening hours to begin another little volume (which,

however, he never lived to complete), entitled The

Natural History of the European Seas. 1 Mentioning it

to one of his friends, he said he “ thought it would tell.”

Lastly, he accepted an offer of sixty guineas for twelve

lectures, to be delivered at the Royal Institution once a

week during the ensuing spring. He chose for his sub-

ject, “ The Geographical Distribution of Organized

Beings,” and showed the grouping of plants and animals

into distinct centres and provinces. He concluded the

series in his own characteristic way, by pointing out the

bearing of such natural history inquiries upon geology.

On the 26th November, an event occurred for which

he had been anxiously looking,—his first living child

was born, a vigorous boy, or, as he playfully styled him,

“ a young Red Lion, very lively and handsome, and ex-

hibiting indications of considerable talent, especially that

of making a noise in the world.”

In answer to an inquiry after the health of the home

circle, he writes to Mr. Patterson :

—

“ Dec. 9.—Your note of the 1st has only found its

1 Completed after his death by Mr. literary executor), and published in

Godwin Austen (whom he left his 1859. London, Van Voorst.


way here to-day, covered with post-office inquiries.

Where did you direct it to ?

“ I am glad to say that my dear wife is going on as

well as possibly could be wished, and that the little

philosopher is pursuing the same even tenor of his way.

Many thanks to you and Mrs. Patterson for your kind

inquiries. . . .

“ My lectures respecting which you inquire, will be

delivered at the Royal Institution, but not reprinted

anywhere that I know of.

“Next week I go to Ransome for his anniversary,

[at the Ipswich Museum] and have promised to give a

lecture on the occasion. . . .

“ You like a good story. In the course of the anti-

papist fever at present raging, the walls have become

covered with inscriptions : ‘No Popery ‘No Wafer

Gods/ etc. etc. But the climax was reached last week,

when an indignant Protestant chalked up on the boards

of the new Exhibition building— ‘ No Remission of Sins !’

“ With, best respects to Mrs. Patterson and my god-

son, believe me ever, etc. E. F.”

The winter passed away pleasantly in London, not,

however, without its occasional trips to the country.

Thus, in the middle of December, he carried out the

i intention, mentioned in the last extract, of going downc to Ipswich to give a gratis lecture for the benefit of the

1 Museum there, on its anniversary meeting.

“ We had a very jolly party,” he said to Mr. Ramsay;

r “Van Voorst, R. Taylor, Bowerbank, old Wallich, Mitchell,

i Lankester, and myself, went down to roar asLondon Lions.

2 H


Hensiow liad to be installed as their new president, and

many jolly fellows were there. I stayed with Ransome,

who gave a great dinner-party on Wednesday, when it

was pleasant to see the bishop, four or five clergymen,

and a bushel of naturalists, all dining at the table of a

Quaker chemist and druggist. The new bishop (Hinds)

is a very clever fellow, and a trump. . . . Yesterday

morning, Ransome got a couple of carriages, and a party

of us drove to Felixstowe, to see a section of the crag,

which I was anxious to see, having never been on that

formation. I have secured a heap of good things for

the Museum. . . . Wife and baby all right.

“ Edward Forbes/'

In a letter to Mr. Thompson, he gives a pleasant

picture of how time was passing with him during part

of this spring :—

“ Feb . 3, 1851.

—

Dear T.,—Having a spare ten

minutes, I take up my pen to write a line in answer to

your last. I have had very little time for writing letters

lately;even my evenings are spent, except once or

twice in the week, hard at work at home,—one of the

advantages of being a married man.

“ Besides survey works innumerable (we are now busy

with the arrangement of our collections), I have the

preparation of my weekly lectures at the Royal Institu-

tion. A map of the distribution of marine animals for

the new edition of the Physical Atlas, the ‘ mollusca/ and

sundry other productions, some for fame and some for tin.”

In this extract he refers to a contribution to the new

edition of Mr. Keith Johnston’s Physical Atlas. This


was his “ Map of the Distribution of Marine Life, ” on

which he delineated the distribution of the fishes, mol-

lusca, and radiata of the sea into distinct geographical

provinces;

also what he called the homoiozoic belts or

bands enveloping the globe parallel to the equator,

characterized by the same or analogous species;a table

of the zones of depth, with copious explanatory remarks

in the text and other two diagrams, one to illustrate the

doctrine of generic centres, the other to show how the

British seas were probably colonized by their present

races of molluscan and radiate inhabitants. The “ sundry

other productions” seem to have consisted chiefly of

articles iir the Literary Gazette,wherein his pen this year

was wonderfully prolific. Thus in the number of that

journal published on January 4th, he had an article on

Professor Sedgwick’s Discourse on the Studies of the

University of Cambridge, and another on the Bon Gaul-

tier Ballads. Again, on the 11th of the same month, he

reviewed Cheever’s “Whaling;” on the 18th, some

volumes on Physical Geography. On the 15th of Feb-

ruary he wrote an article on some works bearing on the

reconciliation of the Chronology of Science and Revela-

tion, which ends thus :—“ If these gentlemen [the authors

criticised in the article] persist in their endeavours to

astonish Geology, they could not do better than join the

Dean of York, a philosopher of similar opinions and

attainments, and by putting all three of their heads to-

gether, they need not despair of forming a conglomerate,

* such as will be unequalled by any puddingstone in the

long catalogue of known strata,”1

1 See Literary Papers, by Edward Forbes. Reeve, 1855, p. 136.

484 MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. CHAP. XIII.

His Friday evening discourse at the Royal Institution

was given on the 14th of February, the subject which

he chose this year being “Recent Researches into the

Natural History of the British Seas/’ In this lecture he

went over part of his old ground, showing the relation of

the present geological features of our seas to former

geological changes, and the extent to which recent

researches had increased the data from which the nature

of these changes could be deduced.

On the 8th April, the weekly lectures at the same

place came to a close. On the 21st of the month,

Sir Charles Lyell, Professor Ramsay, Mr. Bristow, and

Edward Forbes met at Southampton, whence they crossed

to the Isle of Wight. The weather proved unusually wet,

but they succeeded in examining in detail the succession

of tertiary strata at Alum Bay. On the 24th they

reached Lymington, and then passed on to the cliff-sec-

tions of Swanage. Two pleasant and instructive days

were passed among the Kimmeridge and Purbeck strata

of this coast-line, and on the 26th, Sir Charles and our

naturalist returned to London.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND THE SCHOOL OF MINES.

During the spring of 1851, Edward Forbes found

ample employment in the preparation of the Museum

for its public opening. The Great Exhibition was to be

inaugurated in May, and, in anticipation of the event,

i London had begun to freshen up her streets and public

buildings. The activity thus occasioned was working

such wonders as were achieved of old by that wizard

who, by the spell of his magic, changed

The cobwebs on a castle wall

To tapestry in lordly ball.

No place showed more evident tokens of the potency of

the charm than the Museum in Jermyn Street. The

“man and boy” that had so excited our naturalist’s ire

were exchanged for a full complement of workmen.

Everything was hurried on, and the arrangement of the

fossils under Forbes and his assistants progressed rapidly.

The chaos that had reigned throughout the building for

so long gradually disappeared, and there emerged that

systematic order and that artistic grouping which comritinue to delight the eye of every geologist.

The Museum was opened by Prince Albert on Mon-(day the 12th of May. Among the many visitors most•of the leading men of science in the metropolis were

486 MEMOIK OF CHAP. XIV.

present, and the meeting passed over apparently to the

entire satisfaction of Edward Forbes and his brother

officials. There was only one event that cast a gloom

over them;Mr. Richard Phillips, who had for many

years been chemist to the Survey, died the day before.

His kindly unassuming disposition and his droll humour

had gained for him a cherished place in the esteem of all

his colleagues. With none was he a greater favourite

than with Sir Henry cle la Beche, who had, indeed, such

a regard for him that, by the consent of all in Jermyn

Street, the sad intelligence was carefully concealed from

their chief until after the opening of the Museum. "When

the truth was known, however, Sir Henry fell into a deep

melancholy from which, for a long while, nothing could

rouse him.

In a former page of this Memoir (p. 447), reference

was made to an intention that the Museum of Practical

Geology, when arranged in the new building in Jermyn

Street, should be made the basis of an educational

establishment. Application had several tunes been made

to Parliament from some of the mining districts to

form a school for the training of mining engineers, and

the teaching generally of those branches of science

necessary to the proper development of the mineral

resources of the country. The Museum of Practical

Geology, originated by Sir Henry de la Beche, and

augmented by the operations of the Geological Survey,

was pointed to as the most advantageous nucleus foi

such a school. Accordingly, negotiations had been

pending for some time between the officials in Jermyn.

Street and the Office of Woods. The opening of the


Museum had drawn public attention to the subject and

accelerated the arrangements, so that during the course

of the summer the lecturers were selected, the plan of

instruction organized, and all preparations made for com-

mencing a School of Mines in the following November.

Mr. Kamsay, who held the office of Local Director of the

Geological Survey, and was also Professor of Geology in

University College, London, became Lecturer on Geology

and its practical applications. Mr. Warrington Smyth,

mining geologist to the Survey, took the department of

Mining and Mineralogy;

Mr. Hunt, that of Applied

Mechanics;Dr. Lyon Playfair, that of Practical Chem-

istry;Dr. Percy, that of Metallurgy; and Edward Forbes,

that of Natural History, as applied to Geology and the

Arts. With such a staff of efficient teachers, and with

the unequalled facilities offered by the Museum and its

laboratories, it was hoped that the ensuing winter would

bring up many students from the provinces, especially

from the mining districts, in addition to the numbers

that London could hardly fail to supply.

It must not be thought, however, that, in entering

into these arrangements, Forbes had relinquished his

intention of making a stand for the Edinburgh profes-

sorship as soon as it should become vacant. On the

contrary, even when most active in promoting the organ-

ization of the School in Jermyn Street, he had little hope

that there would ever be such an increase of pay, and

diminution of official trammels, as to make the Lon-

don post a comfortable one. So we find him looking

wistfully northwards, and begging for news as to the

probability of Professor Jameson’s resignation. Thus in

488 MEMOIR OF CHAP. XIV.

the midst of the preparations for the opening of the

school in November, he found time to write to Mr.

Thompson that he had “ had some kind letters from old

Jameson/’ from whose liveliness he augured no likelihood

of a resignation, and looked forward, therefore, to be at

least two years longer in London,—an anticipation that

was eventually fulfilled.

The meeting of the British Association was held

this year in Ipswich.

“ I go with Mrs. Forbes to Ipswich on Thursday” [3d

July], he wrote to Professor Ramsay, “ and remain till

Monday afternoon. Playfair, Percy, and Hunt, I believe,

are going also. The Reds are to have a great dinner there

on Friday.

“ I have two or three communications to make, some

zoological. I want to exhibit my new map of marine

distribution, with my proposed Isozoic belts on it.

“ To the Geological Section I mean to make a state-

ment respecting the result of my examination of the Crag

Echinoderms;

also a note calling attention to some of

Logan’s discoveries, and one announcing the presence of

Devonian strata in the interior of Africa, north of the

equator.”

These papers were read with the subjoined titles :

—

1. On the discovery by Dr. Overweg of Devonian

Rocks in North Africa.

2. On the Echinodermata of the Crag.

3. On a new species of Maclurea from the Lower

Silurian rocks of Canada.

4. On some indications of the Molluscous Fauna of

the Azores and St. Helena,


5. On a new Testacean discovered during the voyage

of H. M. S. Rattlesnake.

On the 4th of the month the Red Lions celebrated

their anniversary as usual. After dinner a new red lion’s

head, apparently in convulsions of laughter, was placed

behind the president’s chair, which was filled by Edward

Forbes. The Prince of Canino sat on his right hand, and

around him were many fellow-labourers in science, who

had not met since the previous Association Meeting.

He still retained his professorship of botany at King’s

College. After the lectures of this summer were over,

he went with Mrs. Forbes to Paris, and remained there a

fortnight, his chief object being to make inquiries on

the spot among the scientific schools of Paris for the

purpose of guiding the lecturers at the new School of

Mines.

In the beginning of September, Mrs. Forbes accom-

panied him to the Isle of Man, whence he went alone, on

Survey duty, to Ireland. To Mr. Thompson, he wrote :—

“ Douglas, Isle of Man, September 7, 1851.

“ Dear T.—You will see by the above address that 1

am now in another quarter—nearer you than Paris. I

am availing myself of a short holiday to show my wife

my native (is)land. To Paris I went, partly on survey

business, and partly because I got an invite for self and

better half, on account of my being a sectional committee-

man of the Exhibition ... I have to go to Dublin from

this, and possibly then for two or three days to Jukes’,

at Cork. Then I return to London to prepare my lec-

tures for the Mining School. Playfair and I begin in

November .... Ever, E. Forbes.”


Of his visit to Ireland the following particulars have

been furnished by Mr. Jukes :—

“ My wife and I,” he says, “ were living at that time

in the old vicarage of Monkstown, near Cork, and after

doing some little work in the Palaeontological Collections

in the Museum of Irish Industry, in Dublin, he came down

to me there to examine the fossils of Cork Harbour and

the neighbourhood. He was then busy with his great

work on the British Mollusca, and especially on that part

of it relating to the Limacidce. At that time he always

carried a tin box in his pocket with half-a-dozen fat slugs

in it, on the description of which he was then engaged.

The vicarage, being an old damp house, was well adapted

for a slug preserve;the kitchen and pantry were every

night baited with pieces of turnip, or other delicacies

suited to the limaceous appetite, and the prey diligently

secured in the morning. Our Irish servant was horribly

disgusted at these sluggish propensities of our guest.”

They next visited one or two interesting localities for

fossils;among the rest Kiltorcan near Ballyhale, in the Co.

Kilkenny, where a remarkable series of plants had lately

been discovered by James Flanagan, the fossil collector

of the Irish Survey, who was examining the district with

Mr. A. Wyley (since Geological Surveyor to the Cape

Colony). “ After inspecting the quarries in which the

fossils had been found,” continues Mr. Jukes, “ we pro-

ceeded to Flanagan’s quarters to examine the treasures

he had there ready arranged for our inspection.

“ They were certainly a very remarkable group ;

fronds two feet across of a large fern, since called by 1 orbes

(provisionally) a Cyclopteris, with the specific name of


Hibernica

;

several stems of Stigmaria, Catamites, and

Lepidodendron, or other similar plants, and a shell like

our A nodon, three inches across, to which Forbes after-

wards, in spite of my remonstrances, insisted on affixing

my own inharmonious name as a specific designation.

“ He exhibited and described them the following year

(1852) at the meeting of the British Association, in

Belfast, but, owing to the want of all system which then

prevailed in the Survey publications, and the prohibition

against making known our discoveries, except through

these publications, no proper figures and descriptions of

these fossils have ever been published. After a day

spent in the examination of the organic remains, Forbes

and I caught a train for Kilkenny, where we slept, and the

next day went on to Kildare, where we parted, he for

England, and I to return to my work near Monkstown.”

On October 7th he left Dublin for England, but, be-

fore sailing, found time to write a note to Mr. Thompson.

“Dear T.,—Your letter of the 28th has just been

met by me here. I have been in Ireland since the 27th,

and to-night go to England to meet my wife at Liver-

pool, and go to London on Wednesday.“ I have been on a survey with Jukes in counties Cork

and Kilkenny geologizing. I hope Jukes will have some

important matter—very new—on Irish Geology to lay

before the Belfast meeting. He has determined to do so.

“ At the same time I have been slug-hunting

What Lyell wanted you to do at Lough Neagh with the

willows, was, doubtless, to get a good section of the

thickest trunks, and count their age. Macadam woulddirect you best as to geological deficiencies about Belfast,


But before going through some steady geoiogica] work

in the field, I dare scarcely advise you to write papers,

if you are in earnest about geologizing, take two or

three months’ hard work, learning the trade with the

geological surveyors. To understand rocks in the field

it is necessary to do this, or at least accompany some

able practical geologist for many excursions.

“ I must stop at present, having many things to do

before starting.—Ever, E. Forbes.”

On 14th October, after getting back to Jermyn

Street, he writes to Mr. Eamsay, “ I am now settled

down here for the winter. There is no show of pupils

yet, but we must make an effort as soon as the Exhibition

is over, and when Playfair, etc., will be free for home

affairs. The governor comes up to-morrow to see the

last of the great show. Smyth is here. ... I have just

finished Hitchcock’s Religion of Geology,a very remark-

able book, written in unaffected earnestness, so much so,

that, even where he seems lost in theological prejudices,

one reads with pleasure. It is the best book I have yet

seen for putting into the hands of sincerely pious people

who have a dread of geology.—Ever, E. Forbes.”

The School of Mines opened on the 6th November

with an inaugural discourse from Sir Henry de la Beche.

Each of his colleagues also delivered an introductory

lecture;and, though Forbes at first had resolved “ to

begin plump with no introductory,” he yet conformed

to the general practice. In writing to Mr. Ramsay he

thus chronicles the doings in Jermyn Street :

—“ About

the Museum and School of Mines;

on the whole we


have done as well as could be expected. There are

seven bona fide matriculated students entered for the

two years, and twenty or so occasional, chiefly soldiers.

Besides these we have a few ladies and philosophers

whose tickets have been backed by one or other of us,

so as to give them free admission to all the lectures.

Add to these about a dozen pupils of the School of

Design, who, according to resolution, are admitted free,

on being recommended by then’ director. Playfair and

I lecture to about fifty people so far, including some of

our colleagues. I had fifty-eight yesterday at mylecture. The number appears to fluctuate, but we shall

see. Hunt had thirty-six this morning, and that seems

about his average. There are a few more occasional

entries for chemistry and natural history than for

mechanical philosophy. The audience is highly intelli-

gent, both male and female, and the mining pupils seem

an excellent class of young men. To some extent weare fighting with disadvantages, for the Woods and

Forests, or rather Lord Seymour, do nothing to push us

on;the districts that memorialized for mining schools

have not sent a single pupil;and the uncertainty of

the plans of the Exhibition people respecting the appro-

priation of the surplus, prevents men coming forward,

and unhinges the public mind. Until that is settled,

we don't know exactly where we are. All of us here

are of accord that this should be the nucleus of any

great economical college, such as is talked about, and

that, if we don’t form part of the plan, we must go to

the wall. Lyell, as a commissioner, has had a private

conversation expressly on the subject with me, and I

494 MEMOIR OF Chap. xiv.

dined quietly with Sir Janies Clark for the same purpose,

Lord Ashburton being there. Both Lyell and Sir James

entertain the right view on the subject. Lyell is espe-

cially anxious, as he considers himself pledged by his

former writings to oppose the spending of the surplus

money in architectural displays, and to maintain that it

should be spent in endowments and scholarships. Our

building enlarged (not in the front, but in useful rooms

at the sides) would fully serve all the purpose. . . .

Of my lecture, though reported at length in the Chronicle,

Herald, and Post, I have not got a copy. I forgot to buy

any the day it was delivered, and could not get one the

next day. But it is printing in full at Clowes’, and I

shall send you it as soon as I get it. My themes were :

—

“ 1. Why Natural History is a part of the education

of a school of mines.

“ 2. Why it ought to be a part of all education.

“ 3. How it is linked up with geology, and their

mutual obligations.

“ 4. How a minute knowledge of it maybear upon prac-

tical and money-making inquiries, illustrated by examples.

“ 5. Its relations to the Arts.

“ I like your plan much. Playfair’s lecture was ex-

cellent, and did him infinite credit. Hunt’s very good.

Ever, E. Forbes.”

He had fully resolved to carry into the Natural

History Class of the School of Mines the principle of

field-excursions, which he had introduced with so much

success among the botanical students of King s College.

In the course of his lecture he remarked, “ In con-

ducting the business of this class, I look forward to the


holding of field-excursions, regarding them to be quite

as essential as lectures for the instruction of the student,

who, to benefit by his studies, must become a practical

fossilist, and learn to observe carefully fossils in situ,

and appreciate on the spot the evidence afforded by

their associations. During the progress of our winter

courses this can be done effectually in the neighbourhood

of London, or by means of the facilities of transport

afforded by lines of railroad. I trust that, before the

end of this session, a compact band of undaunted inves-

tigators, belted, strapped, and bcag-bearing, armed with

stout hammers and sharp chisels, under the veteran

generalship of our Director-in-Chief, and officered by

my mineral and geological colleagues and myself, will

make the rocks shake and yield up their treasures for

many a mile round the great metropolis.”

But these bright anticipations were never, during

Forbes’s connexion with the establishment, adequately

fulfilled. The disadvantages under which the School

started continued to hinder its further progress, and as

year succeeded year, matters showed no symptom of

improvement, Forbes found himself compelled to un-

dergo all the fatigue of lecturing, without the counter-

balancing stimulus which a well-attended class never

fails to impart. His lectures, that should have attracted

a numerous body of students, were given to rows of

almost empty benches, and the tones that were wont to

delight many a brilliant audience, here returned to himwell-nigh void. And yet the natural history lectureship

was more popular than most of the others, so that his

colleagues fared even worse than he did. In short it

49 G MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XIV.

soon became sufficiently evident that the scheme of

forming a great mining school in London had as yet

failed to attain the success that had been anticipated.

Some attributed this result to the choice of Londonas the site of the school; others to the length and expen-

siveness, or to the too comprehensive character of the

curriculum of study; while some looked upon the whole

school as an instance of arrested development, and re-

garded its success as impossible until the arrangements

which had been liberally conceived should be worthily

carried out. But to whatever cause it might be due,

there was no doubt of the fact. Our naturalist’s an-

ticipations, never very sanguine, had yet been griev-

ously disappointed. He knew the possibilities of the

Jermyn Street Museum, and used to say, that it might

be made an almost unrivalled school of geology and the

cognate sciences. So strongly, indeed, was he impressed

with this conviction, that he sometimes found himself

balancing in his own mind the advantages of the School

of Mines with those of the Edinburgh professorship;

and it was perhaps hard to say which at times kicked

the beam, for the London appointment had not only its

own prospective success to recommend it, but it was

fortified by all the ties of the various friendships winch

a residence of nine years in the metropolis had now

woven around him. If the School of Mines had become

what Edward Forbes wished it should become, it is

possible that he might never have left London, but have

endeavoured to work out there the schemes he had been

reserving for Edinburgh. But when he had at length

fairly to confess that the London School had fallen far


short of his anticipations, and that there seemed to him

hut a feeble chance of its ultimate success, he abandoned

all hope of finally settling in London, and returned with

fresh eagerness to his first love,—the professorship in his

Alma Mater.

The winter of 1851, however, witnessed only the

inauguration of the School of Mines. Every allowance

was made for the difficulties and hindrances almost in-

separable from the early career of a new institution;

and thus the lectures were given hopefully, in the pro-

spect of larger classes and greater usefulness when the

School should gradually come to be better known.

One of the most useful features of the School was

the organisation of a set of evening lectures for artisans,

on the different branches of science taught by the pro-

fessors. In the spring of this year a course of six lectures

was given, that by Forbes (16th February) having for

its title, “ Why Fossils are Collected and Exhibited, Ex-

plained.” The same course was repeated in April and

May. Next year, however, instead of repeating the

lectures, one or two of the professors gave a short course

of instruction, each in his own department of science;

and this plan was found to be attended with such ex-

cellent results, that it has continued ever since. On the

day of issue, the tickets are so eagerly bought, that in

less than half an hour the whole number is disposed of,

and on the lecture evenings, the theatre is filled with as

attentive and intelligent an audience as any to be found

in London.

The close of the year saw the completion of the

third volume of the British Mollusca. He also contri-

498 MEMOTR OF CIIAP. XIY.

butecl scientific papers to various journals, in particular

to the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, the

Art Journal, and the Literary Gazette. His delightful

article on “ Shell-fish, their Ways and Works,” was pub-

lished in the first number of the new series of the West-

minster Review (January 1852). Many of his literary

articles were reviews on books of travel, such as Neale’s

Syria, Christmas’s Mediterranean, Squier’s Nicaragua,

Mundy’s Australia. So that his pen, whether grave or

gay, elaborating scientific description, or dashing off

articles and squibs for the literary journals, was seldom

wholly idle.

So again, in work and hope, another winter passed

pleasantly away. Not, however, without its socialities,

its soirees and dinners : the annual festivity of the

“ Royal Hammerers,” when the Survey geologists came

to London for the winter, with their songs written for

the occasion;

the monthly Red Lion meetings, with

Forbes in the chair, and the table girt round with

applauding brethren;the anniversary of the Geological

Society, and of societies and clubs, scientific, philoso-

phical, or otherwise, without end.

When Easter came, he took a short holiday in Bel-

gium, “ with the hope,” he said, “ of getting London fog

out of his head.” With his friends of the Geological

Society—Prestwich, Sharpe, Austen, and Morris—he

rambled over the country under the guidance of Du-

mont, who pointed out on the ground the leading

features of his great map of Belgium. After seeing

these, and noting not a little that bore importantly

upon questions that were engaging the attention of the


Geological Survey at this time, he re-crossed the Chan-

nel, and found that during the fortnight of his absence,

“ a mountain of letters ” had accumulated in his little

three-cornered den in Jermyn Street.

The return to London was, of course, a return to

hard work, for which, however, his short Continental

ramble, terminating on the 18th of April, had somewhat

braced him. And yet, on the 8th of May following, he

wrote to Mr. Jukes—“ I am nearly fagged out with

lecturing, etc., but, thank Providence, the Museum

lectures have just come to an end for the present/’

The lectures at King’s College, however, now re-com-

menced, lasting nearly all the rest of the summer.

On the 29th of August, his daughter was born, and

very soon thereafter he left London for Ireland, partly

for the British Association meeting, which was to

assemble this year in Belfast, and partly to inspect some

palaeontological localities with Sir Henry de la Beche and

Mr. Jukes. The papers he read at this meeting were—1. On the Fossils of the Yellow Sandstone of the

south of Ireland.

2. On a Species of Sepiola new to Britain.

3. On a New Map of the Distribution of Marine

Life, and on the Homoiozoic Belts.

Referring to this meeting, Mr. Jukes writes :“ The

Red Lion dinner that year was one rather above the

average for fun and jollity, the Prince of Canino being

especially remarkable for his roar on the occasion, until

at last the hotel establishment fairly broke down under

an apparently unexpected demand for coffee.

“ After the meeting, Forbes and Sir Henry, with my


wife, her friend, and myself, started for Dingle, going by

way of Dublin, Limerick, and Tralee. We stayed two

or three days in Dingle, Forbes and I driving out each

day to the neighbourhood of the coast about Ferriter’s

Cove and Dunquin, and Sir Henry, whose legs had then

begun to fail him, sailing round in a small cutter which

happened luckily to be there at the time. Forbes and 1

made large collections of the Upper Silurian fossils, that

occur so abundantly along the extreme western shore,

and I got my first view of a section which has given me,

and others of the Survey, many an hour of hard work

and puzzling thought since then. We could neither of

us help uttering an exclamation of wonder, as we walked

from near Ferriters Cove, up the gently sloping hill at

the back of Clogher Head, and saw first one peak, and

then another, of the Blasket Islands rising over the crest

of the hill before us. We had not previously caught a

glimpse of the islands, and as we had the sea just below

us on the right, and knew that the coast there ran on

the whole nearly north and south, we could not imagine

for the moment where this lofty land could be, till a few

steps more disclosed the whole group rising steeply up

from the sea into sharp peaks and ridges, with the white

foam creaming and mantling round their base. 1

“ The last evening we were on this shore, we had seen

Sir Henry’s little boat pass through the Sound into

Dingle Bay, and the wind fell to a calm as we were

struggling over the ridge at the back of Dunquin, under

1 Sketches of some of this scenery will the Maps of the Geological Survey of

he found in the Explanations to accom- Ireland,

pany Sheets 1G0 and 161, 171 and 172 of


the weight of our fossil-bags. It was eight o’clock when

we got back to Dingle to dinner, and there we found no

tidings of Sir Henry. We were getting anxious, when

at last he himself turned up about ten o’clock. He had

been becalmed in the Bay, and only got in at last in a

canoe that they luckily fell in with. In traversing one

of the small villages perched on the slopes of the hills

that fall towards the Atlantic, south of Dunquin, Forbes

said that it put him in mind of some of the villages in

the Greek islands. Each cabin was perched on a little

patch of ground surrounded by a small fence of stones

and separated from the rest by a deep little gully or

stream, the path through the village forming a perfect

maze of corners and ups and downs.

“ Having seen what we could in the time at our

disposal, Forbes and Sir Henry went across to Valentia

in the boat, while the ladies and I prepared to car it to

Killarney and Glengariff, where we were to meet again.

Sir Henry, as usual, was bustling about as well as his

growing infirmities would let him, making arrangements

for us as well as himself, inquiring the distance, and so

on, and often repeating, ‘ The road has a good bottom, a

good bottom.’4 Well then,’ said Forbes, at last, looking

over slyly to me, ‘there’s the less occasion for any bustle

about it.’”

Before the end of September he had returned to

London. As most of the year, owing to the Jermyn

Street lectures, and the press of Museum work, had been

spent in town, there had accumulated a good deal of

palaeontological arrears in the field which it was desirable,

if possible, to clear off tins year. His colleague, Mr.

I

502 MEMOIR OF ClIAP. XIV.

Bristow, had been at work on the lower cretaceous rocks

of the Sussex coast, and the sections there now needed

to be visited by the palaeontologist. Forbes was likewise

anxious to follow up his previous investigations among the

tertiary deposits of Hampshire, so that there was plenty of

field work to keep him a month or two out of London.

On the 30th September, he writes from the Museum

to Mr. Jukes :—

“After three days’ bustle and bother, we got our

traps in Harewood Square packed, and sent a small

army of forty packages to Tilbury’s warehouse. Yes-

terday at three, I carried off my wife and family and

transported them to Winchester, where I left them under

safe and kind charge this morning. I have work to wind

up at the Museum, so must be in town for three or four

days, and then start solus to Hastings to look at the

sections there for Bristow. Thence I shall go to Bognor

and Bracklesham, and, after stopping a day or two at

Winchester, at the end of next week to superintend my

daughter’s christening, will join Sir Henry in the Isle of

Wight.”

The Isle of Wight remained his head-quarters for the

rest of the year. At Freshwater, on the western shores

of that island, he spent some time with Sir Henry, and

gives an amusing account of his doings in a letter to

Mr. Reeks, the secretary at the Museum :—“The Gover-

nor and I are daily at work here, flanked by Gibbs,

Cotton, and two small boys. The Governor rides on his

pony, a very quiet beast, which, however, is believed by

his master to have an irresistible propensity to leap over

logs of wood when he sees them. It is true that he has


never done so yet, but then he always stops to look at

them, Sir Henry says with the above-mentioned intent.

If I stop to gather a blackberry, the pony stops, and

won’t go on till I have done. The Governor comes out

with his pockets full of excellent prawns and sandwiches,

which he distributes all round about two o’clock P. M.

daily. It was just as well I came down, since he had

made Gibbs leave this place long before it had been pro-

perly collected or examined. We have been most suc-

cessful, and I hope to turn out a very fine and interesting

section, better than any done previously of this spot, and

that is saying a deal after the excellent work of Prest-

wick and Dr. Wright.”

Again, on reaching Brixton, he wrote to the same

correspondent,—“ Bristow and I migrated in a phaeton

from Freshwater on Saturday, passing Gibbs emigrating

with goods, chattels, a wife and five children, in a don-

key-cart. Gibbs did the voyage in three hours. Weleft the Governor hearty—I think really better in health

—and busy about his tumulus, in which he has been

digging for a week, and finding—nothing.

“ It is raining and blowing most abominably. Never-

theless, in spite of the weather, we made some discoveries

yesterday, that escaped everybody who has been here

before.”

“ Brixton, Isle of Wight, 27tli October.

“ My dear Ramsay,—I am sitting beside and

five cats. The pussies were confided to his care by his

sister when she left, and he feeds them all on a clean

napkin twice a day, with the most charming gravity.

The cats will certainly commit suicide and go to .the


digging when lie departs. Tlic weather is horrid, so the

cats are really amusing.

“ We have been very busy at the tertiary sections,

and cuttings of the Wealden, and, I hope, will be able to

show that there is a thing or two undiscovered. I expect

next month’s work at Wliitecliffe will develop sundry

germinating ideas. On these points I must write to you

more at length. Gibbs is working famously, but is not

as well as I could wish. I am very anxious that our

tertiary collections should be fine, since there are such

very fine private ones in London.

“ I fetch my wife and banns to Sandowu on Monday—leave them there and go to town to see to matters at

the Museum for four or five days, and to hear Playfair’s

lecture, then return here. I ’will be at the first meeting

of the Geological;Sedgwick is to hold forth on a new

classification of the Caradocs.”

Mrs. Forbes and the children remained with him at

Sandown till the beginning of February 1853. It was

during this winter that he worked out those novel and

deeply interesting points in the classification of the ter-

tiary formations, which threw a new light upon that part

of British Geology. The detailed memoir on this sub-

ject, however, he did not live to complete ;it was finished

by Mr. Austen and Mr. Bristow after his death.

The weather during the greater part of his stay in

the island was cold and very wet, and he used to work

on in mud and rain. This exposure contributed not a

little to impair his health, while one of his assistants con-

tracted a rheumatic ailment that confined him for many

weeks. The interest and novelty of the discoveries,


however, usually kept them out of doors in spite of the

inclemency of the weather.

On November 12tli, he writes to Mr. Eamsay :

—

“ It is a very wet day;raining and blowing

;and

we cannot go out. No loss of time, for I can get more

fossil work done in a day here than in three in London.

Before setting to the specimens before me, however, I

will write a short screed anent our doings among the

tertiaries.

“ Bristow has told you of the curious fresh-water post-

tertiary deposit which we found on the cliffs at Collwell.

It is pretty clearly of the same age with the newer ele-

phant-gravel of these parts, and the same thing with the

stuff in the Dorsetshire coombs, on which I have many

notes. The top of Headon Hill is capped by a great

esker of gravel of very different age, and much older.

“ Our grand £

find/ however, concerns the Eocenes, or

rather the fiuvio-marine portion of them. You are aware

that they have hitherto been divided into

“ A. Upper Fresh-water and Estuary.

“ B. Upper Marine.“C. Lower Fresh-water, etc.

C. resting on the Headon Hill white sand, which is re-

garded as part of the Barton series.

“Now it has been shown by more observers than one

that A belongs to the same series as C, and B is only the

result of temporary interrupting conditions. Moreover,

Prestwich, LyeU, and others have shown that A, B, andC are all essentially parts of the Eocene series below, andnot, what the French have maintained, a distinct series,


according to some, forming a stage of the Eocene

;

according to others, constituting the Lower Miocene.

“ Worked (and most accurately worked), as these beds

had been by Prestwich, and, in part (very accurately

also), by Wright, not to speak of the number of pages

written by great stars and small about them, I certainly

did not expect that we should do more than add some

minutiae of interesting details;that a new classification

of them could come out, I certainly never anticipated.

Nevertheless, I believe we have got hold of a great step

in British, if not in European Eocene Geology.

“ It is quite true that the fresh-water and estuary beds

above the ‘ upper marine/ are repetitions of those below,

paleontologically and geologically. But this is true only

in part. The old ‘upper fresh-water’ is really divisible

into two series of strata, the uppermost of which is more

distinct from the lower, than the latter is from the beds

below the ‘ upper marine/ This has been entirely over-

lookedIT

Again, on the 19th of the same month, “The weather

here is positively hideous, nevertheless, knee deep in mud,

we keep advancing, and very satisfactorily. There is

some pleasure in working out a point that has bothered

Prestwich, D’Arcliiac, and Dumont, and muddled eveiy

body else. Dumont was nearest the mark, probably, after

all. But everybody has been led astray by the veiy

natural fancy that what they saw at Whitecliff was what

they saw at Headon. Since I wrote last we have found

a remarkable, and, in some respects, better section for

true upper beds than Whitecliff;one at St. Helen s that

seems to have never been described. We are waiting


for favourable skies arid tides. The post-tertiaries here

are also exceedingly interesting.”

He writes to Mr. Reeks on 27th November :

—

“ I am sorry to hear of the state of the School ;not

that it is really so bad, but that, in order to make out

our case for a continuance, we ought to be able to show

a positive increase. I look upon the Turks as accidents

(I hope not unprofitable ones), and matriculated ama-

teurs, as very good in them way, but not the class of

men for whom the School can claim public support.

I

There must be a strong push made for next session.

When you can spare a few minutes, you would oblige

me much by a line respecting the nature of the proposi-

tions for going a-head debated at the Council. What are

Playfair’s notions now ?

“ You should catch old Z some fine day in the

Museum, lock him up, and make a hostage of him for

the Turkish debt.

“ The weather has become suddenly fine to-day. Wehope it will keep so. The deluge is over. My son and

heir’s second birthday was yesterday : Bristow, Miss B.,

and Aveline, dined with us to celebrate it. Bristow

brought him a magnificent microscopic donkey, and I

presented lnm with a Noah’s ark. He opened it and let

out Noah, which is the reason why the rain stopped.

You are aware that Noah did not come out of the ark

until after the deluge was over.

“ My work here is far too important to quit.”

The Council of the Geological Society had determined

to propose Forbes at the next general meeting for the

office of President of the Society—a very great honour

508 MEMOlll OF C1IAP. XIV.

to be conferred on so young a man. It is to this he

refers in the subjoined letter :

—

“ Sandown, Isle of Wioht, 10th December 1852 .

“ Dear Ramsay,—I should have written before since

you came to town, but know how busy you must have

been. Thanks for congratulations about the Presidency,

but barrin’ the honour, the office is a deal more trouble-

some than pleasant, and, say what folks will, costs the

holder, or at least ought to do so. I have done my best

to shirk it, though I feel the compliment very much,

especially coming as it did from the old hands in the

first instance. My knowledge of the ins and outs of the

Geological Society, acquired when I was assistant Secre-

tary, will enable me to get through the business part

more easily than I otherwise could. For the last three

years, too, I have been hard at work, during extra horns,

at the ‘ Mollusca’ book—now at an end, or at least with

the index in the press, besides sundry doings for the

periodical press, necessary for pulling up deficiencies in

the exchequer. I shall start the new year clear of debt,

and with a few pounds in hand, and intend to do no

more extra work than may be a recreation, so that after

all I shall have more time in hand for duties of all kinds

than hitherto.

“ I have heaps of survey materials to work up, and a

difficult set of lectures for the first part of my course

;

but with my evenings free at home, I can master them

all if in good health, and this air has, I hope, given me a

stock for the session.

“ I propose to go to Ireland in the middle ol next

month, and to remain here writing up, etc., until I go.

1852, EDWARD FORBES. 509

I wish to be settled in London before my lectures begin

on the 8th of February. I want Gibbs to work for ten

days at the other side of the island, on a very important

job, which he alone can be trusted to do.

“ I shall leave wife and babbies here when in Ireland,

and fetch them after they have all fattened considerably.

I must look out for a house as I go through town.”

He thus sums up the results of those busy weeks :—

“ Samdown, 12 tli January 1853 .

“ Dear Ramsay,—I arrived here last night after

being with Gibbs for a week, finishing up the other end

of the island. The results are most satisfactory.

“ At length I have succeeded in examining bed after

bed, the whole series of fluvio-marines;

I might almost

say without the break of an inch.

“ There are minute points, it is true,—all, however,

purely palaeontological, that would require a long spell

of dry weather before they could be got at. But the

geological and zoo-geological evidence is perfect;

the

order of superposition and perfect conformity of every

bed are now made out without possibility of question.

There will be more light thrown upon the Upper Eocenes

(or Lower Miocenes, as the French will call them) by

these sections than by any in Europe, and they will form

a scale and test for the continental ones. They will also,

if I do not greatly mistake, settle the question about

their nomenclature, and definitely ]fiace the upper fluvio-

marines, and the corresponding strata of France andBelgium, in the Eocene series. Gibbs has worked like a

brick, and he can tell you that our work has been nojoke, with such weather as it has been done in.


“ With all the beds fresh in my mind, and so familiar

that I could tell each by the mere colour, or rather shade

of colour of mud in a ditch, I thought it would be useful

to go over the Freshwater peninsula, and trace in the

boundaries of the denudation of these Upper Eocenes,

and the superficial area occupied by the Headon fluvio-

marines. Tins may save Bristow some trouble. I have

also traced, as far as I believe it is possible, the boun-

daries of the area occupied by the Hempstead beds. Tell

Bristow of this.

“ I shall be in town next week on my way to Jukes.

Mrs. F. and family will remain here whilst I am away.

I shall so arrange my Irish journey as to have three or

four days after my return here before my lectures com-

mence, in order that I may avail myself of the oppor-

tunity of looking to certain points in the Whitecliff

sections, about which I require to see Edwards' collec-

tion in London first.

“I am writing up my account of these tertiaries

most vigorously .

1

“ Wife sends best regards. She and my little ones are

plump and thriving. Hoping to see you soon, and to have

the pleasure of being introduced to Mrs. Ramsay, ever,

dear R., very sincerely yours, Edward Forbes."

Here, perhaps, better than elsewhere, just as he has

completed his investigations in the Isle of Wight, and is

on the eve of starting again for London, there to resume

his post at the Museum and School of Mines, may be

1 It lias been already stated tliat lie was finished after his death by Mr. Aus-

did not live to complete his account of ten and Mr. Bristow, and published in

these Isle of Wight strata, but that it the Memoirs ofthe Geological Survey.


inserted an interesting letter written by him while still

at Sandown, to the late Dr. Drew of Southampton, on

the subject of museums and the teaching of the natural

sciences .

1 Some eight years previously, a gentleman of

the name of Hartly had left the bulk of a large fortune to

the town of Southampton, for the promotion of the study

of Natural History, Anatomy, Antiquities, and classical

and Oriental literature. Forbes was applied to for his

advice, and the following was his reply to Dr. Drew :

—

“ Sandown, 27th December 1852.

“My dear Sir,—You ask me in what way the study

of Natural History might be most effectually promoted

by an institution such as that intended to be founded at

Southampton.

“ The question is one to which a satisfactory answer

cannot readily be given. It is one over which I have

often pondered with much anxiety, believing that the

study of Natural History will sooner or later become

general in tlris country, and be accepted as a necessary

branch of general education. Some accurate and sys-

tematic knowledge of the natural productions of our

planet, and of its geological structure and history, should

surely be possessed by every well-educated person, and

ought to be taught to youths of all classes. Moreover,

there can scarcely be a better, certainly not a more en-

gaging exercise for the logical faculties than the practice

of Natural History observation, and the distinguishing

and defining of affinities and analogies.

“At present the systematic teaching of any portion1 This letter partly anticipated liis succeeding session (1853-4) of the School

lecture “ On the Educational uses of of Mines, but is sufficiently distinct toMuseums,” with which he opened the merit a place in this Memoir.


of Natural History in this country is almost entirely

confined to the medical, the engineering, and mining

schools. It is made a branch of professional and not of

general study. The popular lectures given at mechanic’s

institutions are almost always of too isolated a character,

or consist of too few in sequence, to do more than excite

curiosity or interest for the moment, however able the

lecturer may be.

“It appears to me that there are three modes by

which, taken in combination, a knowledge of Natural

History may be to a considerable extent diffused by a

well-conducted scientific institution.

“ 1 st, By courses of lectures—no course consisting

of fewer than twelve lectures, nor including more themes

than can be fairly illustrated within its limits. Longer

courses, say of twenty or thirty lectures, would be more

beneficial. They could be given most effectively during

the spring and summer months, and should be varied by

occasional field excursions.' I need scarcely insist that

to make such lectures truly useful, the very ablest men

should, if possible, be employed to give them. The mere

‘ popular lecturer ’ is too often a man who gets up a sub-

ject with which he has little or no practical acquaintance.

However pleasing his discourse may sound to the ear, it

makes but little impression on the mind of his hearers.

The more eminent the lecturer (as an original investi-

gator), provided always that he has the gift of telling his

story clearly and fluently, the more permanently inter-

ested will his audience be.

“ 2 d, By instruction delivered to limited classes,

say of twelve or fewer persons at a time, in theform of

IS52. EDWARD FORBES. 513

demonstrations. The principles of Natural History, the

methods of study and manipulation in the several de-

partments of the science, may be thus effectively taught,

provided the teachers be able and practical naturalists.

I foresee much difficulty for some years to come in

the procuring of competent, instructors. Even among

reputed naturalists there are few persons sufficiently

well-grounded to undertake the office. Only by well-

remunerated, permanent posts, could the right men be

secured. The duties, however, might be combined with

those concerning the charge of the Museum.“ 3 d, By what I may call eye-instruction, conveyed

by aid of a well-regulated museum, a department of the

institution absolutely necessary for the successful pro-

secution of teaching either by lecture or demonstration.

Much, however, may be done in the way of imparting

knowledge by museum arrangements alone, but very

rarely do we find this systematically attempted. Pro-

vincial museums are too o±cen ambitious attempts at

general collections, and, necessarily, failures. Too manyof them are little better than curiosity-shops. In their

best aspect they are, with very few exceptions, far

more costly and far less useful than they ought

to be. I would have a provincial natural history

museum to consist of three departments, for which

three spacious rooms, if properly constructed, would

suffice.

“ 1. A local collection, illustrative of the zoology,

botany, and geology of the county or district. This,

if done with judgment, would attract visitors from far

and near, and be equally interesting to residenters and

2 K

514 MEMOIR OF C1IAP. XIV.

strangers. Southampton is peculiarly well situated for

the forming of a valuable local collection.

“ 2. A leaching collection, consisting of carefully

selected, well-arranged, and thoroughly labelled types

of the classes, orders, families, and leading genera of

animals and plants, of the series of geological formations

and their characteristic fossils, and of minerals—no

superfluous specimens to be admitted.

“ 3. A miscellaneous collection, including fine or

rare specimens of exotic productions not necessary for

the teaching collection, remarkable curiosities, and ethno-

logical illustrations. There might be included, to render

this division useful as well as curious, a classified trade-

collection, displaying the natural productions or sources

of production used in commerce. I may illustrate what

I mean by referring to the admirable cases illustrative

of imports into the port of Liverpool exhibited last year

in the Crystal Palace.

“ In offering these suggestions respecting a museum,

I have confined my remarks to Natural History, but 1

hope that the department of Antiquities will also re-

ceive full attention, and that the local antiquities-be kept

distinct from the miscellaneous specimens.

“ I hope most earnestly that the Corporation of

Southampton will found an institution adapted to serve

as an example and model for other places. This is a

grand opportunity.—Believe me, my dear Sir, very truly

yours, Edward Forbes.

During the sojourn among the tertiaries of the Isle

of Wight, Forbes had found time for very little literary


or scientific work, save the geology of the island, and

the preparation of the last number of the fourth and

concluding volume of the History of British Mollusca.

That great work was now completed—a monument to

his scientific knowledge and his industry, as well as

those of his coadjutor, Mr. Hanley. He now resolved

to return to the volume of the Natural History of the

European Seas, part of which had been printed, though

two-thirds had still to be written. Yet in the end he

never found time to continue its preparation, and, as

already stated, it was completed after his death by

Mr. Austen.

On the 8th of February his lectures at the School of

Mines began. On the 18th of the same month was the

anniversary dinner of the Geological Society, when he

was to take the chair as president. Anxious, as all

presidents are, to see a good attendance, he himself

wrote invitations to men of note in London, and was

warmly aided by some of his friends. His wishes maybe best gathered from the following note to Sir Roderick

Murchison :—

“ Wednesday morning .—I am sorry to hear from

Captain Smyth that he is knocked up by influenza, and

cannot be at Friday’s dinner. I am very much obliged

to you for so kindly stirring in this matter, and hope

especially that you will persuade the Duke of Argyle to

come. The more great names the better, but I am not

much in the way of seeing them. The American am-

bassador, to whom, among others, I flew a note on

chance, has accepted the invitation, and as he is a neworator, may be pulled up with effect. I wrote to both

51G MEMOIR OF CHAP. XIV.

the Belgian and French ministers, on account of the

Wollaston honour, and stated the facts in my notes, but

have had no replies. Bunsen sends a very kind note of

apology on account of engagements. I want a bishop

or arch-parson to say grace, and thought to have got

Jelf, but he is engaged.

“ I shall be extremely obliged to you if you will take

charge of a toast, either my own health, as president, or

the Geological Survey and School of Mines. The latter

I would much rather not give myself, on account of mypersonal connexion with it

;and I think it might be

given with great effect either by you or the (late) presi-

dent. I am anxious that it should be well done, and

that I)e la Beche should be called up to reply to it.

The completion of the survey of Wales would make a

point in it, and the rearing up of young geologists, now

hatching in Jermyn Street. Perhaps you would arrange

with Hopkins, he to take one toast and you the other.

Your doing so would be a great favour to me and

attraction at the meeting/'

His Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution

this spring was fixed for the 13th of May, his subject

being “ Some New Points in British Geology/' In this

lecture he pointed out the general nature of his recent

researches among the tertiary strata of the Isle of Wight,

showing that the geology of that island had been pre-

viously misinterpreted;

that there existed a group of

strata there which had not hitherto been recognised in

Britain : and that the Isle of Wight sections, instead of

being incomplete, were really the most perfect in Europe,

perhaps in the world, and tended to throw fresh light on


the conformation of vast regions of Europe, ancl, possibly,

even of Australia.

This spring, Forbes undertook a course of six even-

ing lectures to working men, “ On the Elements of

Natural History/' They were given in the theatre of

the Jermyn Street Museum, every Monday evening, to

numerous and attentive audiences. The change was a

pleasant one, from the nearly empty hall in which his

morning prelections were delivered, to the same hall in

the evening, with its sloping tiers of benches filled

almost from floor to ceiling. Besides these lectures, he

gave another course of five, “ On Animal Forms," at

Marlborough House, under the auspices of the “ Depart-

ment of Practical Art.”

The Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, along

with the Metropolitan School of Mines, having been

transferred from the Office of Woods to the department

of the Board of Trade, a Treasury Commission was ap-

pointed to inquire into the working of the School, and to

report upon the best means of improving its organization

and extending its usefulness. Forbes, along with the rest

of his colleagues, gave evidence before the Commissioners,

and pointed out what he considered the injustice done to

men of science in the treatment they received from the

Government, as well as the need of clear and definite

arrangements for the proper conduct of the School. The

report given in to the Board of Trade by the Commission

incensed him not a little;“Not," he said, “ because there

was any attempt made to injure us, but because it was so

plainly slighting to us in its propositions/' In short, in

his estimation, the Report if adopted would only make

518 MEMOIR, OP CIIAP. XIV.

matters worse by continuing and confirming the custom

of remunerating clerks and secretaries at a rate greatly

higher than that at which the services of men of science

were estimated. Fortunately the Report was not acted

upon. But the uncertainty and want of precision in the

arrangements of the School of Mines continued, and

formed the subject of much careful consideration to the

Board of Trade. The president, Mr. Cardwell, fully

appreciated the grievances stated by Forbes and his col-

leagues, and during the summer had frequent consulta-

tions, especially with Forbes, whose judgment had great

weight with him. The threatening aspect of the political

horizon, however, just as the Russian War was on the eve

of breaking out, necessarily impeded all arrangements

that involved considerable pecuniary grants. Forbes

classified his complaints under two heads;

those re-

lating to the School, and those which concerned the

officers at the heads of departments in the Survey, etc.,

having daily duties. Of the first class, he dwelt especi-

ally on the fact, that the Professors had not a sufficient

outfit for lectures, etc.;that they had to pay their own

attendants out of their already sufficiently small in-

comes, and that they had to take their students to the

country, live in expensive hotels, and received no subsis-

tence money to defray their additional expenditure. In

the second order of complaints he placed the inadequacy

of the pay of the heads of departments in the Survey

;

that these gentlemen were ranked by their salaries in a

lower grade than many officers in the same department,

such as Registrars and Secretaries, who had no right on

any grounds to a superiority of position, and whose duties


required no special capacity or peculiar training, beyond

that of many thousands of clerks in public and private

establishments;that no personal allowance was granted

to meet the expenses entailed by the frequent changes of

station in the Survey;that while the principle of rise of

pay with length of service was admitted in the Art and

general departments, it was ignored in regard to the

Survey, and generally, that both the Survey and the

School demanded much more fostering care at the hands

of Government than had ever been extended to them.1

“ Now is the time to fight the battle,” he wrote to Mr.

Ramsay, “ and fight it I will, on principle, and for the

interest of all scientific officers.”

So with this warfare to harass him, two courses of

lectures at the School of Mines, and his botanical lectures

for ICing’s College, to occupy his time, besides all the or-

dinary work of the Museum and the Survey, the summer

of 1853 passed away. The end of July found him be-

ginning to get jaded with over-work, but still unable to

take his annual holiday. It had been arranged that he

should take the students of the School of Mines into the

country for some weeks to train them in field observa-

tions, and the beginning of August had been fixed for

the purpose. Leaving Mrs. Forbes and the children at

Hythe in Kent, he started for Swanage, Dorset, and

spent a fortnight with the students. His mode of teach-

ing is referred to in a note to Mr. Ramsay :—

1 These complaints are here condensed since that date been transferred to thefrom his own enumeration of them in control of the Privy Council on Educa-lctters to Professor A. C. Ramsay, tion, and that an augmented rate of paychiefly in a note dated “ Museum, 18tli with progressive increase, as well as per-November 1853.” It is but right to state sonal allowances, have been granted tothat the Survey and the School have the Surveyors.


“ Swanage, 13lh August 1853.

“ I have them (the students) hard at work here, exer-

cising them in the construction (each separately of course)

of a detailed section of the Purbecks, palaeontological

and mineral characteristics of every bed to be fully stated.

I shall then make use of them to draw up with me a

similar section of the Hastings Sand, and on Thursday

next leave this for Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight, where

they shall go through the Eocenes. Whilst with methey will have seen in very characteristic localities all

the formations, from the Kimmeridge to the Upper

Eocene included.

“ I shall leave them in the Isle of Wight to finish their

work alone. It will be very convenient for them, as they

will take ship at Southampton for Falmouth, there to

join Smyth. After that I must have some rest. I can-

not stand this perpetual head-work, and must have

change of scene. I find just money enough in the ex-

chequer to give me and my wife three weeks on the

Continent, and I mean to go. When you got your pass-

port, did you include Mrs. Eamsay in it % Any hints

will oblige. Of course I shall be back to give the lec-

ture on the 1st of October at the Museum. The subject

I mean to take up is the Educational value of the

Museum, and I intend to point out what is very apt to

be forgotten, that the peculiar merit and character of our

place is the application of it as a museum to purposes ot

instruction in directions that mainly are not looked to

elsewhere. I shall speak very plainly on the subject.

“ I have had many conversations with the men here

about their future prospects and intentions.


especially opened out (apparently as a spokesman for all

the rest) about the surveying service. The absence of

all allowances for hotel expenses, and the indefinite

character of future prospects, are the points that make

the service look very small in their eyes. There really

must be something very definite done in this matter.

The whole service ought to be put on a proper footing.

It must be done, too, before the estimates are arranged

for next year, for Survey arrangements are not per-

manently settled at the Board of Trade yet. The surplus

money in the Survey ought to be used for purposes of

pay. Our service ought to be placed on as good a foot-

ing as the Engineers’. I mean to take the first opportu-

nity of making a strong statement on the matter.”

Too much exhausted by incessant work, he abandoned

the British Association, which met this year at Hull.

Instead of attending the meeting, he spent the month of

September in France;the first week resting and geolo-

gizing round Paris, the second and third in Auvergne,

among the volcanoes and tertiary strata, and the fourth,

working the Paris basin, in all its typical parts, with

Mr. Prestwich, who went over to join him. Referring

to this trip, he writes to Mr. Ramsay :—

“ I would urge in the strongest way upon you, when

you can get a spare month, to make a run to Auvergne.

You might go to Clermont, and see all the leading

phenomena in ten days, or even less. Before working

the Scotch traps, such a visit would be invaluable. I

was utterly astounded at many things, and never ex-

pected to find such perfect duplicates of ancient igneous

rocks among many of these comparatively modern ones.

MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XIV.

The country is not half worked, and the true history of

its tertiary geology has all to be made out. I see glim-

mers of the way how, but it would require leisure and

time.

“Mrs. Forbes was with me, and we enjoyed ourselves

very much, at comparatively small cost,—much less than

living in London. She is now with the babbies at

Hythe.”

These few weeks in France were weeks of thorough

enj oyment. He used to speak of them as his “ honey-

moon trip/’ and as the very happiest time of his whole life.

He made work subservient to enjoyment, and the holi-

day was in this way the first, not on duty, that Mrs.

Forbes and he had spent together. The weather, however,

proved very bad,—storms of hail, rain, and wind. The

tourists were frequently drenched with rain, especially

during an ascent of the Puy de Dome, when they were

exposed for hours to the pelting of - the storm. Forbes

himself was thoroughly chilled, and used frequently

after this to complain of pain in the head and back.

Recruited by change of air and scene, he returned to

London in time for the opening of the School of Mines

on the 1st of October. He had been appointed to give

the introductory lecture, and the subject he chose, as

noted in a previous page, was the “ Educational Uses of

Museums/’ having, of course, especial reference to the

collection with which he was himself connected.

Although in that lecture he took occasion to mentionO

the increase in the number of students, there was still

veiy little in the prospects of the School on which to

found much congratulation. The arrangements with


the Bocard of Trade, too, still remained in the same

unsettled and unsatisfactory state. It was with no

small eagerness, therefore, that Forbes now heard of

the rumoured resignation of Professor Jameson. There

was no doubt about the matter this time. The veteran

geologist, feeling the accumulating weight of years, had

sent in to Lord Aberdeen, then Prime Minister, a condi-

tional resignation, the chief points in which were, that a

pension should be assigned to him, and that the keeper-

ship of the Museum should be separated from the pro-

fessorship, and given to his nephew, Mr. Laurence

Jameson. Except on the question of the separation of

the keepership, he was supported by his colleagues in

the University, who were likewise anxious that Edward

Forbes should put in his claim.

Now at last came the opportunity for which he had

longed;the goal to which, during these many years of

toil, he had never ceased to look. When it arrived, he

was fighting against over-work and many discourage-

ments, and yet we cannot wonder that the final decision

was taken at last with hesitation and regret. The asso-

ciations by which a ten years’ residence had linked him

to London, were not to be lightly cast away. His circle

of acquaintance had every year widened. He had risen

to a high rank in the scientific world, and exerted per-

haps a more potent influence among all classes of society

than any other scientific man of his day. His position

in London, therefore, was in this respect such as no pro-

vincial town could hope to parallel. But, besides this,

he had still closer ties. In London, which had wit-

nessed his struggle for life and fame, fixed most of his


closest friends. They had been, many of them, his

fellow-comrades in the battle, knew him thoroughly, and

were as thoroughly known to him. Voluntarily to exile

himself seemed almost like an unkindness, and a slight

upon the years of his intimacy with them. With Forbes

these feelings had a peculiar force. His judgment, and

all the dreams and aims of his life, pronounced for the

professorship in the north;his love of friends and of

society prompted him to remain. There was little

doubt, indeed, that the former would carry the day, but,

before taking any active steps, he summoned a council

of friends immediately after the conclusion of his intro-

ductory lecture at the opening of the School of Mines.

Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Roderick Murchison, and Mr.

Pentland happened to be at hand, and being all his

staunch friends, he opened the subject fully to them.

They each supported his views, and though anxious,

if possible, to retain him in London, vigorously aided

him in the resolution to which a calm consideration of

all the circumstances had led him. What that resolu-

tion was, he communicated to Mr. Ramsay as follows :

—

“ The time is at length come when I am obliged to

decide between trying for Edinburgh and sticking to

London. I can assure you that it is with a somewhat

sorrowful spirit I am obliged to resolve for the north.

. . . After carefully considering the state of things here

—most unsatisfactory, I am sorry to say, they are—

I

determined to risk the hazard of a try. I took the

advice of Murchison, Lyell, and afterwards ol Sir Henry

himself, who really went over the matter clearly and

fairly, but piteously despondent. To-day 1 went to


the Home Office with Pentland, to inquire into the real

state of the case, and found there was no time to be

lost, as for a post so good there are plenty of busy

candidates and intrigues. I do not feel by any means

confident about obtaining it, and am in that frame of

mind that, whichever way the matter goes, I will feel

more comfortable than under the present unsettled state

of affairs.”

Again, to Sir Roderick Murchison he writes :—

“After very earnest consideration of the matter, I

feel satisfied that I may be of more use to science in

Jameson s post than in any other. Were I independent

of all office, I could be of more use in London, and

would not think of leaving;but since I cannot quite

dispense with an appointment, I shall be better able to

do original work, and to train men for it, with the inde-

pendence and status that an Edinburgh professorship

gives, than as holder of a small post in London.”

Professor Jameson, from the infirmities of ao-e, was

little more than a passive agent in the matter. He had

resigned only conditionally, and one of his stipulations,

that of separating the Museum from the Professorship,

was opposed by his colleagues, and declined by the

Government. Strenuous efforts, however, were madeto obtain it for him

;and on no part of the proceedings

connected with the Chair was Forbes so keenly sensitive

as on this. To Mr. Horner, who had taken up his case

warmly, he thus writes :

—

“ This point is likely to cause

a difficulty, since I believe the Lord Provost (of Edin-

burgh), and possibly other people (but certainly none of

the Senatus), are advocates for the separation, on the

5 2 6 MEMOIR OP CIIAP. XIV.

ground that greater facilities would thereby be afforded

to the public. There is a fallacy in this notion; for the

impediment to study offered by Jameson, depended on

the professor’s peculiar character, and might easily be

prevented by a regulation of the powers of the Keeper.

But to separate the Keepership from the Professorship

would be to paralyse the Chair. The Keeper would

have it in his power to prevent the Professor illustrating

his lectures properly, and in the lectures, one system of

nomenclature might be taught, whilst another entirely

contradictory might regulate the objects in the Museum !

How could any true teaching go on under such circum-

stances % I certainly could not conduct the Chair as it

ought to be conducted under these circumstances. I

can confidently appeal to the men of science who have

visited the collection under my charge, and ask where

they could find greater facilities for study offered;and,

if I went to Edinburgh, the same principle would govern

my actions. I will keep you well-informed of the

progress of affairs.”

Although he believed himself to have formidable

competitors in the late Dr. Fleming, and in another

gentleman still living, his success was certain from the

first. Indeed, the amount of influence which he and

his friends brought to bear on the Home Office was

enormous. Men of high social position, as well as the

most eminent men of science, actively supported his

application. This support came not from London only.

The Professors of the Edinburgh University were almost

unanimous in their eagerness to have him as a colleague,

and the Town Council seemed equally favourable to his


election. From all quarters, political and scientific,

came testimony to the pre-eminent fitness of Edward

Forbes to be the successor of Jameson. “ I have nothing

to complain of as to my friends in this matter,” he said.

“ Murchison has proved a trump, as he always does, so

has Horner, and Lyell has been endeavouring to turn

it to account, by calling Mr. Cardwell’s attention to the

necessity of providing better for scientific offices generally.

The Duke of Argyle has taken the matter up most

warmly and actively. ... I return the Provost’s and 0.

Maclaren’s kind notes. I shall not forget their straight-

forward and unsolicited friendliness;

I value it very

much indeed.” Every movement, whether in London

or Edinburgh, was made known to him through many

different channels. In short, although his warm fancy

magnified the obstacles in his way, and regarded Ins

ultimate chances as very dubious, there could really be

no doubt as to the ultimate success of a candidate whomeverybody seemed determined to support.

While matters were in such a state, that he felt it

would be rash to leave London for twelve hours, he

received, on the 13th of October, an urgent letter from

the Isle of Man, requesting his presence there, owing to

the sudden and serious illness of a near relative. There

were circumstances in the case that concerned his ownManx affairs, and it was impossible to avoid undertaking

the journey. Before leaving, he endeavoured to put his

chances of success in Edinburgh on the best footing

and left instructions with his friends to work on his

behalf. Thus to Dr. Lyon Playfair, “ Whilst I am awaymuch may be doing in Edinburgh beyond my reach,

and I trust in you, as an old friend, to put a spoke in


the wheels of my opponents if you find them going too

fast, and to aid me as much as possible.” By the 19 th,

however, he was again in London, having been absent

only five days.

On getting back, he found that a new form of oppo-

sition had sprung up in Edinburgh. A proposition had

been started to have Jameson’s lectures read for him,

while the veteran himself continued to hold the pro-

fessorship. This met with favour in the Edinburgh

Town-Council, and was eventually accpiiesced in by the

Senatus of the University. But when Forbes heard of

it he regarded the movement as a very formidable one

to his prospects. “As I expect” (he wrote to Mr.

Horner), “ the whole affair will now come to a dead-

lock, and be delayed until spring at soonest;

I must

just hold myself free to act accordingly. I certainly

should have liked to have had the post as it stands,

since I think it might have been turned to good service

for science, but if they will mutilate these posts in

Edinburgh, I must just make the best of London.”

“You have little notion,” he said to Mr. Ramsay, “ of

the botheration and struggle attending a contest of this

kind. Scarcely a day passes without my having to

stump an intrigue.”

It was reported in London that these movements had

disheartened him, and that, in fact, from the very first,

he had been only half in earnest in his candidateship.

The regret at leaving London which he always expressed

to his friends there, both orally and in his letters, led

many to believe that he would prefer to remain in the

metropolis. But that he was in earnest in the wish to

stay, and thus to forego all the dreams of his life, cannot


for a moment be believed. Mr. Horner, indeed, to whose

ears the report of Forbes’s fickleness had come, and who,

like all his London friends, would much rather have him

still with them, wrote to ask whether the rumour were

true, and our naturalist thus indignantly denies it :

—

“ Jermyn Street, October 26,1853 .

“ My dear Mr. Horner,

—

I should have been de-

ceiving you and many other kind friends if I had desired

to retain my London place in preference to the Edin-

burgh Chair. Rest assured that there is no post here, or

possible to be made here, that would induce me to remain

could I become Professor Jameson’s successor in his pro-

fessorship and keepership. Lyell, with the kindest of

intentions, wrote to Mr. Cardwell of his own accord, and

did not tell me that he had done so until afterwards.

Playfair did the same without informing me. I have

assured both that I cannot accept any office in prefer-

ence. Lyell does not know how we stand here, and has

never felt the horrors of being slowly strangled by red

tape—a process of slow torture and eventual death we

are undergoing in this place. Playfair knows better,

but wishes me to stay if possible, though unable himself

to point out any possible inducement. ... If Jameson’s

retirement had been effected, or even if it were to happen

within the next fortnight, i.e., by the commencement of

the Edinburgh session, I intended to have arranged mymovements as follows :—To have asked permission to

deliver a three months’ course in Edinburgh this ivinter,

commencing in February, and to have remained in Lon-

don till then, completing my Government course which

should have begun in January, commencing it in No-2 L

530 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XIV.

vember instead, so as to have caused no embarrassment

to the Jermyn Street schools. As it is, I shall make no

permanent settlement this winter in London, but keep myengagements open in such a way that I may be ready,

if called upon, to give the summer course (commencing

in May) in Edinburgh. But there are many reasons whyI would prefer the matter settled now if possible. . . .

“ I hope this long screed will convince you that I

am thoroughly in earnest about getting the Edinburgh

Chair. Ever, my dear Mr. Horner, very sincerely

yours, Edward Forbes.”

During these weeks of suspense, Mrs. Forbes and the

two children remained at Hythe, in Kent, the Professor

going down now and then to see them, and to breathe

the sea breeze. Until the settlement of the Edinburgh

Chair, one way or other, he had resolved not to take a

house for the winter in London. Now, however, that

Dr. Traill had been appointed to read Professor Jame-

son’s lectures during the winter session, nothing more

would probably be done till towards the summer term

of the Edinburgh College. He could, therefore, leave

London 'without prejudice to his interests in the north.

He had delayed visiting Ireland, although the fossil

collections in the Museum of Irish Industry stood greatly

in need of his assistance, and Mr. Jukes had pressed him

to come over to help the Survey. Feeling himself at

liberty to do so now, he left London in the beginning of

November, and remained in Dublin ten days. Writing

of this visit, Mr. Jukes says :“ Although the fossils were

then in a complete chaos, and the gallery cases only just

finished, yet such was the easiness and quickness with


which he worked, that he had arranged every specimen

with his own hands, and all were in their places, with

descriptive cards, before the end of a week.”

This done, he speedily found his way back to London,

and after a visit to Hyde to be present at the marriage

of his brother-in-law, and to the Isle of Wight to examine

the Osborne sections which he had not yet seen, he col-

lected together all the notes and material necessary for

the memoirs on the two great fluvio-marine series of

Purbeck and the Isle of Wight, as well as his presidential

address to the Geological Society, and betook himself to

Hythe, there to elaborate his papers in the cpiiet of his

own family, and away from the turmoil of London. Hefound that in tins way he got “ more written in a day

than in a week at the Museum.” Coming up occasion-

ally to town, to attend meetings, he still made the sea-

coast his head-quarters during the remainder of the year

and the first few days of January. One of the visits

which he paid to the Metropolis was on the last day of

the year, to dine with Professor Owen, and a scientific

party at the Crystal Palace, inside the model of the

Iguanodon, which had just been finished, and this, Forbes

pronounced to be “ a good wind-up for a geologist’s year.”

Another object he had in London was to secure a fur-

nished house; this he succeeded in obtaining at 84,

Wimpole Street.

The first part of the course of lectures at the School

of Mines lasted till Easier, and when it came to a close

he was only too glad to take a vacation of three weeksin France. On getting back to London he wrote, 28thApril 1854,—

“Dear Jukes,—Prestwich, Austen, Sharpe, and I.

532 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XIV.

started on the day before Good Friday for France, to ex-

plore the district called the Pays de Bray. My object

was to search for Purbecks, and to see the nearest bed of

tertiaries to the Isle of Wight ones. We had beautiful

weather and great -success. Had I more time, I would

tell you of the results.

“We came back on Sunday, and I was somewhat sur-

prised at hearing of Jameson’s death, which, ill as he was,

I did not think was so near at hand.

“ After stating the case to Sir Henry, and consulting

Horner, Lyell, Murchison, Sir J. Clark, Austen, and other

staunch friends—all except Lyell of one mind—I felt it

my duty to apply for the post, though not without a

pang. Success is probable, but by no means certain.

However, I shall be settled one way or other, which will

be a comfort either way.”

On the evening of the same day on which this note

was 'written, he gave his well-known lecture to the Royal

Institution, “ On the manifestation of Polarity in the dis-

tribution of organized beings in Time.” The theory

announced in this lecture will be alluded to on a subse-

quent page.

An interval of harassing suspense followed the an-

nouncement of Professor Jameson’s death. On the 2d of

May, Forbes writes a few hurried hues to Mr. Jukes :

—

“ You can fancy,” he says, “ how tremendously I am

pressed at present in consequence of this Edinburgh

business, which is still unsettled, and which may call me

away at a moment’s notice. Indeed, the Scottish autho-

rities have run me into a fix, by saying that whoever is

appointed will be obliged to take immediate duty. In

that case I must leave my babes and their mamma in


town, and go at once to Edinburgh and do the course,

getting Huxley to finish my labours here, and Bentley

to do the same at King’s College. In the meantime, this

state of suspense is intolerable.”

At last he reached the goal. The Professorship of

Natural History in the University of Edinburgh was

finally conferred upon him.

It came somewhat suddenly in the end, so much so,

that he “ was forced,” he said, “ to leave at a moment’s

notice.” Writing of these movements to Professor

Ramsay, he remarks :—“ There were strong endeavours

made for the other candidates, but I got in comfortably

and speedily, and wished then to have been permitted to

have finished my summer’s work in London—an arrange-

ment of which the [Edinburgh] professors were ap-

provers. But the Town-Council, though the chair was a

Crown one, resolved to have a finger in the pie, and had

one very good for me, by unexpectedly memorializing the

Home Office in my favour, a proceeding which probably

gave a good excuse for setting aside the other applicants

without ceremony. The Provost came to London, and

contrived to get matters so arranged, in spite of me, that I

was desired to go and take the summer duties at once, and

to make the best arrangements I could for the London

summer courses. With a house on my hand till August,

many tilings to do, and a very doubtful prospect for the

summer beginning so long after usual time, I did mybest to oppose. ... As it was, an interim arrangement

was made that Huxley should finish my School of Mines’

‘Principles’ course, and Bentleythe King’s College lectures.

I had a long sit with Mr. Cardwell, and have done mvbest to promote the interests of the School and Survey.”

534 MEMOIR OF EDWARD FORBES. ClIAP. XIV.

Many and varied were the expressions of regret that

followed the announcement of his early departure from

London. Nowhere were they louder than in the Geo-

logical Society, of which he still filled the presidential

chair. At the last evening meeting of that Society

previous to his leaving for the north, a scene occurred

showing how close and warm was the sympathy between

the President and the Fellows. When the scientific

business had been concluded, Sir Roderick Murchison

rose, and after referring to Forbes’s early connexion with

the Society, and the numerous valuable papers and

memoirs with which lie had since enriched its Transac-

tions, announced that before the return of another

meeting their distinguished President would have en-

tered upon another and distant sphere of labour. Sir

Roderick, who had been among the first of the geologists

to perceive and acknowledge the merit of his friend,

dwelt gracefully on what was not the least remarkable

feature in the connexion of Edward Forbes with the

Society-—his generous cordial intercourse with all, and

his power of attaching every one to him. Forbes rose

to reply, but his feelings overpowered him. “ I thank

you,” followed by a gush of tears, told best his sense of

the esteem in which his colleagues held him.

And so, on the 13th of May, bidding adieu to Lon-

don, with its toil and turmoil, its constant demands on

his time and thought, its circles of acquaintance and

friendship, and all its pleasant associations, gladly, and

yet not without a pang, he set out to take his place as a

Professor in the University which, rather more than two-

and-twenty years before, he had joined as a student.

CHAPTER XV.

THE CHAIR OF NATURAL HISTORY AT EDINBURGH.

Before following the course of Edward Forbes to

the goal of his ambition at Edinburgh, it may be well

to pause for a few pages in order to look back upon the

work which he accomplished during his residence of

eleven years in London.

It may be doubted whether a biographical Memoir

is the fitting place for a critical estimate of a man and

his work. At least it rarely happens that in such a place

the estimate is an unbiassed one. The biographer who

has made it his duty to search into all the personal de-

tails of the subject of his memoir, who has had before

him for many months the picture of a human life with

its early promise, its struggle into manhood, its toils and

battles, its hopes and fears, its friendships and sym-

pathies, and then, perhaps, its sudden and premature

setting, can hardly hope to be impartial. Work, the

record of which is but scanty, and its recovery, therefore,

a task of no little labour, is apt to be over-estimated, and

that which, if done by another man, would have been

regarded as of little import, comes to possess an interest

above its own when performed by him whose course the

biographer has been tracing.

536 MEMOIR OE CHAP. XV.

The writer of these pages can lay no especial claim

to impartiality, and he is, moreover, too sensible of his

inability to cope with the subject, to presume to offer

here a critical estimate of Edward Forbes. That must

be done by an abler pen, when the work which the great

naturalist accomplished has had time to spring up and

bear its rich harvest. There are some features of this

work, however, which may find fitting mention here.

At the close of the narrative of his iEgean excur-

sion, reference was made to the general character of his

scientific researches up to that time. We saw how,

eminently a biologist from his earliest days, he had first

pursued botany, chiefly with reference to the distribu-

tion of plants, and then how he passed to the study of

the geography of animals. The transition from these fields

of inquiry to that of palaeontology or zoo-geology was

natural and easy. He had in this manner become, to some

extent, a geologist before quitting Edinburgh, not merely

by collecting rocks and minerals, but in a far broader

and more philosophical way, by connecting the distribu-

tion of plants and animals with geological speculations.

His tour in the East greatly widened his experience, and

showed him more clearly than ever how much still re-

mained to be done in weaving geology and the biological

sciences more closely together.

It was in this task that the greater part of his Lon-

don life passed away. True, he found time during those

busy years for some purely zoological work, as his His-

tory of British Mollusca, and papers and monographs for !

the Ray and Linnsean Societies, abundantly testify. His

summer holidays, too, were frequently spent cruising


along our shores with the dredge—an instrument which

he first methodized as an implement of zoological re-

search, and brought into extensive use by inducing the

British Association to form a Dredging Committee. In

these summer excursions, while refreshing his memory

as regarded the details of the mollusca or radiata on

whose description he happened at the time to be engaged,

he often added new forms to the marine fauna of the

British seas. But his zoological work during Ins fife in

London arose mainly from the researches of his earlier

years.

Although so long Professor of Botany, Edward For-

bes, after he came to London, did almost nothing in the

way of strictly botanical work. He read a few minor

botanical papers at the British Association. But his

most important contribution to botany arose not from

the botanical but from the geological side.

It was chiefly in the domain of zoo-geology, to use

his own phrase, that he passed his public life;and it is

mainly as a zoo-geologist or palaeontologist that he will

take rank in the annals of science. Llis palaeontological

work, however, did not consist of mere descriptions of

fossil species. These he regarded only as part of the

preliminary ground-work of palaeontology, and he ever

strove to rise above them to the broader scientific ques-

tions to which they led.

His zoo-geological researches were marked by two

eminently characteristic features :—In the first place, by

a habit of constantly reading bygone eras of existence by

the light of the present one, not only for the elucidation

of zoological details, but for the comprehension of the


ancient physical conditions of land and sea. Just as his

botanical and zoological labours had been chiefly directed

to the distribution of living plants and animals, and the

laws by which that distribution is regulated, so in palae-

ontology he sought to ascertain from his knowledge of

the existing creation, what had been the former distribu-

tion of other tribes of plants and animals, what the cir-

cumstances under which they lived, and how far they in

turn threw light on the grouping of the tribes now living.

In the second place, his palaeontological work was char-

acterized by its broad generalizations. No fact stood

long single and isolated in the mind of Edward Forbes.

He had a remarkable tact in discovering the bearing of

detached phenomena on each other, and their relations

in the general economy of nature. Hence he delighted

to generalize his observations, and to speculate, after his

own imaginative fashion, upon questions of the deepest

interest to man, alike in his relations to the outer world

and to the Creator.

As an illustration of the first of these character-

istic traits of his zoo-geological researches, reference

may be made here to his remarkable paper “ On the

Connexion between the Distribution of the existing

Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, and the Geological

Changes which have affected their Area, especially dur-

ing the Epoch of the Northern Drift.” Taking for

granted the truth of his doctrine of specific centres, that

is, geographical points from which the individuals of

each species have been successively diffused, the problem

which presented itself to Edward Forbes was to account

for the present assemblage of plants and animals in the


British Islands,—a problem which had never yet been

propounded by any of the geologists or botanists who

had treated of the distribution of our indigenous fauna

and flora. He believed that the plants and animals of

Britain could, for the most part, only have come by

migration, before the isolation of our islands from the

Continent, and he sought to trace out the history of this

migration. Grouped according to their geographical

distribution, the plants naturally ranged themselves into

five well-marked assemblages, or floras.

1st, There is a small area, embracing the mountainous

districts of the west and south-west of Ireland, and con-

taining plants which are also found native in the north

of Spain.

2d, In the south-west of England and south-east of

Ireland, a group of plants occurs, not elsewhere seen in

the British Islands, but intimately related to the flora of

the Channel Isles and the neighbouring part of France.

Certain species of mollusca are peculiar to this region.

od, In the south-east of England, the vegetation is

distinguished by the presence of a number of species

also found on the opposite French coast. The peculiar

character of the entomology of the south-east of Eng-

land, and also that of the pulmoniferous mollusca, are

intimately connected with the presence of this flora.

4ttli, The summits of our mountains yield a peculiar

assemblage of plants, which increase in number as weproceed northwards, all of them being identical with

Scandinavian species. The fauna of these mountainregions, so far as developed, bears the same relation to

more northern countries.

540 MEMOIR OF CHAP. XV.

5th, The fifth and general flora of the British Islands,

everywhere present, alone or in company with the others,

is identical, as to species, with the flora of Central and

Western Europe, that which may he properly styled Ger-

manic. The fauna accompanying this flora presents the

same peculiarities, diminishingtowards the north and west.

Such being the present grouping of the plants of the

British Islands, it became an interesting question to in-

vestigate the causes that produced this distribution, and

the geological epoch during which it took place. It un-

doubtedly arose chiefly during a period anterior to that of

man, and there could be as little hesitation in assigning

to it a later date than that of the older Tertiary forma-

tions, when palm-trees flourished over the site of south-

eastern England, and turtles and crocodiles haunted the

neighbouring waters.

The great mass of the British flora, as well as of the

pulmoniferous mollusca, being Germanic, Forbes showed

that it had migrated from the Continent dining the

post-pliocene period, after the bed of the glacial sea had

been elevated so as to form a land passage between Eng-

land and the Continent. Proceeding across the British

Isles, the number of species of Germanic type diminishes

as we go westward, and increases when we cross the

German Ocean. Hence the eastern counties present

certain botanical and zoological peculiarities, dependent

on Germanic plants and animals that have been arrested

in their range, while the fauna and flora of Ireland and

Scotland are marked by the presence of plants and

animals not of Germanic type, or by the absence of

English species, which are.


But though, the migration of plants and animals over

the great Germanic plain accounted for the major part

of our British species, there was still a considerable flora,

and a portion of our fauna, which could not be traced to

such a source, seeing that they are inhabitants, not of

the ancient west of Europe, but of Scandinavia. These

Alpine species could not have found their way to the

British Isles after the Germanic forms, for their areas

had then become isolated on mountain- ranges. Geo-

logical evidence clearly proved that the central and

northern parts of the British Isles, along with the

Germanic plain, had at one time been covered with an

Arctic fauna and flora. This was the Glacial period,

when an intense cold prevailed over Central and Nor-

thern Europe, and icebergs, bearing mud and stones,

were drifted southwards from the frozen north. During1

a part of this era, Forbes maintained that our mountains

rose above the sea as scattered islets, having a northern

vegetation, and that as the land rose, and these islets

became isolated mountain tops, the Alpine plants re-

mained only on the high ground, while the great Ger-

manic flora spread itself over the lower plains and

valleys, and dispossessed the Arctic forms as the climate

grew milder.

There still remained three limited assemblages of

plants and animals,

—

1st, That of Kent;

2 cl, That of

Devon;and 3d, That of the west and south-west of Ire-

land,— all derived from continental regions south of the

great Germanic group. The Kentish and Devon floras,

according to Forbes, must have migrated (probably at

two periods anterior to the Germanic migration) from

542 MEMOIR OF chap. xv.

the north-west and west of France, across a tract of land

now destroyed. But perhaps the most remarkable of

cdl the floras was that which he numbered I., charac-

teristic of the south-west and west of Ireland. Thepeculiar plants of this region were found to be identical

with species either confined to, or abundant in, Spain

and Portugal, especially in Asturias. No marine cur-

rents could account for their transmission, nor could

they have been conveyed as seeds through the air. Thehypothesis which Forbes proposed was, that at a period

greatly earlier than that of the origin of any of the other

floras, there existed a tract of land between Ireland and

the Peninsula,, across which the Spanish vegetation

crept towards the north-west. Of this flora, indeed,

only the hardier species have survived, but these

are distinct from those of any other part of the British

Isles.

By a similar process of reasoning, he showed, in

the second part of his memoir, how the present fauna of

the British seas probably originated. It is impossible to

do more here than merely refer to his speculations on

this subject, so well known to geologists for then’

shrewdness, and the high interest which they possess in

helping us to connect our present marine fauna with

that which witnessed the latest geological changes that

affected the area of the British Isles. His announce-

ment of the existence of “ outliers”

of northern species

of mollusca in the deeper parts of our seas, formed an-

other beautiful illustration of the law which he had

discovered in the iEgean,—that parallels of latitude are

represented vertically in the ocean, by zones of depth,


just as they are represented on land by zones of eleva-

tion.

The second feature described as characteristic of the

zoo-geoloefical researches of Edward Forbes, was a love

for broad and often poetic generalizations. In the me-

moir on the British fauna and flora this feature is espe-

cially prominent. The observations of other naturalists

are combined with his own, in a generalization which

gives them a. meaning and importance that they never

had before. The scattered facts of the zoologist and

botanist are linked together in such a way as to throw

light on the geological history of our country, and to

indicate the existence of ancient lands that had long

disappeared beneath the sea.

As a still more characteristic instance of this feature

of his mind, it may be enough to point to his doctrine

of polarity in the appearance of life upon our earth

during the geological periods. The idea was a favourite

one with him in the last year of his life. It concluded

his presidential address to the Geological Society;

it

gave rise to a discourse to the Boyal Institution; and

it formed the subject of one of the last, if not the very

last, lecture that he delivered.

Geologists are accustomed to subdivide the great

series of stratified rocks into three groups, Primary or

Palaeozoic, Secondary or Mesozoic, and Tertiary or

Cainozoic. To Forbes, however, it appeared that the two

last groups formed but one, and he proposed to regard

the geological record as made up of two portions only,

the Palaeozoic and the Neozoic, each of which repre-

sented a vast period in the past history of our planet.

544 MEMOIR OF ciiap. xv.

When he considered attentively the arrangement mani-fested in the Appearance of generic types during these

periods, he was led to infer the existence of a general

law dependent on what he called “ the manifestation of

the relation of Polarity.”

“ In the general aspect of the palaeozoic world,” he says, “ contrasted

with the worlds of life that followed, although all are evidently portions

of one mighty organic whole, there seems to me to be something morethan the conti ast that depends on the loss or non-discovery of connect-

ing links. There is more than we can explain by this theory. Grant-

ing for its support all facts capable of being so applied, there are

residual phenomena to be accounted for, and which, as yet, have not

been referred to any law that I know of. Doubtless a principal element

of this difference lies in mbstitution, in the replacement of one group

by another, serving the same purpose in the world’s economy

Now in this substitution the replacement is not necessarily that of a

lower group in the scale of organization by a higher. There is an ap-

pearance of such a law in many instances, that has led over and over

again to erroneous doctrines about progression and development. The

contrary may be the case. Now that we have learned the true affinities

that exist between the Bryozoa and the Brachiopoda, we can see in these

instances the zoological replacement of a higher by a lower group, whilst

in the former view, equally true, of the replacement of the Brachiopoda

by the Lamellibranchiata, a higher group is substituted for a lower one.

Numerous cases might be cited of both categories.

“ But can we not find something more in these replacements and

interchanges than mere substitution,which is a phenomenon manifested

among minor and major groups within every extended epoch 1 Is there

no law to be discovered in the grand general grouping of the substitu-

tions that characterize the palaeozoic epoch when contrasted with all

after epochs considered as one, the Neozoic 1 It seems to me that there

is, and that the relation between them is one of contrast and opposition,

—in natural history language, is the relation of Polarity.

“ The manifestation of this relation in organized nature, is by con-

trasting developments in opposite directions. The well-known and often-

cited instance of the opposition progress of the vegetable and animal

series, each starting from the same point, the point at which the animal


and vegetable organisms are scarcely, if at all distinguishable, may serve to

illustrate the idea, and make it plain to those to whom the use of the

term Polarity in geological science may not be familiar. In that

case we speak of two groups being in the relation of polarity to each

other when the rudimentary forms of each are proximate, and their

completer manifestations far apart. This relation is not to be con-

founded with divergence nor with antagonism.” 1

“ The maximum development of generic types during the Palaeozoic

period was during its earliest epochs;

that during the Neozoic period

towards its later epochs. And thus, during the Palaeozoic period, the

sum of generic types and concentration of characteristic forms is to be

observed in Silurian and Devonian formations;during the Neozoic

period it is during the Cretaceous, Tertiary, and present (itself part

of the Tertiary) epochs that we find the maximum development of pecu-

liar generic types (or ideas). On the other hand, during the closing

epochs of the Palaeozoic and the commencing epoch of the Neozoic period,

there was a poverty in the production of generic ideas, with few ex-

ceptions the species of the epochs in question being members of genera

that form constituents in the assemblage, accumulated during the epochs

of maximum of geueric types or ideas.

“ The following table may render my meaning more evident :

—

i Present and Tertiary

Neozoic JCretaceous epochs

period.)

Oolitic epochs

l Triassic epochs

c Permian epochs

Palaeozoic J Carboniferous epochs

period.j

Devonian epochs

l Silurian epochs

epochs)l Epoch of maximum development

j

of Neozoic Generic types.

Intermediate.

\ Epochs of poverty of production

jof Generic types in Time.

Intermediate.

Epoch of maximum developmentof Palaeozoic Generic types.

“ Before the Silurian and after the commencement of the present, no

special creations of generic types have as yet been shown to be mani-

fested. In the system of life of which all known creatures living or

extinct, so far as our knowledge extends, form a part—and there is a

consistency in its co-ordination that suggests the probability of our being

acquainted with its extremes—the creation of the fauna and flora of

the oldest Palaeozoic epoch would seem to be the primordial, and the

appearance of man the closing biological events.

1 Anniversary Address to Geological Society, 1853.

2 M

54G MEMOIR OF CHAP. XV

|

“ There may appear to be a contradiction involved in the expression

manifestation of 'polarity in time, for since time implies sequence or

progression in one direction only, how can we connect with time an

arrangement that involves the notion of progression in opposite direc-

tions, proceeding from a median zero 1

“ But time is an attribute with which man’s mind invests creation;

a mode of regarding Divine ideas, necessary for the conception of them

by our limited faculties, and forming in itself no part or essence of the

Divine scheme of organized nature. We speak of Polarity in Time, for

want of a better phrase : but this polarity, or arrangement in opposite

directions, with a development of intensity towards the extremes of each,

is itself, if I am right in my speculations, an attribute or regulating law

of the divinely originating scheme of creation, therefore strictly speaking

independent of the notion of time, though perceptible by our minds only

in connexion with it.” 1

In making public this hypothesis, its author admitted

that it could at that time be received as no more than

a suggestion, one, however, which was based on a vast

number of individual facts, and a wide series of investi-

gations. And though it has not found much favour in

the eyes of his contemporaries, it seems only fair to the

memory of the great naturalist that the last, and, per-

haps, most beautiful of all his speculations— one on

which, towards his close of life, he seems to have dwelt

with especial fondness, but which he never lived to illus-

trate and defend—should find mention in this Memoir

of his labours.

Edward Forbes, from the beginning of his career on-

wards to its close, was remarkable for constantly looking

at nature, not as a mere piece of mechanism, obeying

certain laws, and effecting certain results, but as a great

visible manifestation of the ideas of God. No one could

i Royal Institution Reports, April 1S54.


be further than he from the habit of introducing the

Divine name, as is so often rashly done, into descriptions

of natural objects, almost as it were for the sake of

effect. Nothing roused his indignation more than what

he called “ Bridgewater writing,”—well-meant, but fool-

ish expositions of the argument from design. Rightly

viewed, no one part of creation shows more than another

of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. As His

work, and as “ having passed that general visitation of

God, who saw that all that He had made was good, that

is, conformable to His will, which is the rule of order

and beauty,” 1 there can be no object in nature that does

not equally manifest the design of its author. But

Forbes loved to deal with the organic world as a world

of type and symbol—an embodiment of the thoughts of

the Creator. A genus was to him a Divine idea that

existed in its perfect form in the mind of God alone,

and was only dimly shadowed forth to us. A species he

regarded as the visible and individual, though partial

manifestation of a generic idea, and the sum of all the

species of a genus as comprising all that man could

know of the meaning of this idea.

Thus every grade of organized being came to have a

peculiar significance. To the Platonic mind of Forbes

it was an outward type of an inner Divine thought.

But more than tins, it did not stand isolated and uncon-

nected, but was linked by a thousand ties to all other

parts of the animate and inanimate world. “ How manyand how curious problems," he says, “ concern the com-

1 Browne’s Religio Medici, i. xvi.—A favourite book of Edward Forbes during liis

student life in Edinburgh.

548 MEMOIR OF CIIAF. XV.

monest of the sea-snails creeping over the wet sea-weed

!

In how many points of view may its history be con

sidered ! There are its origin and development, the

mystery of its generation, the phenomena of its growth,

all concerning each apparently insignificant individual

;

there is the history of the species, the value of its dis-

tinctive marks, the features which link it with the higher

and lower creatures, the reason why it takes its stand

where we place it in the scale of creation, the course of

its distribution, the causes of its diffusion, its antiquity

or novelty, the mystery (deepest of mysteries) of its first

appearance, the changes of the outline of continents and

of oceans which have taken place since its advent, and

their influence on its own wanderings. Some of these

questions may be clearly and fairly solved;some of

them may be theoretically or hypothetically accounted

for;some are beyond all the subtlety of human intellect

to unriddle. I cannot resolve in my mind the many

queries which the consideration of the most insignificant

of organized creatures, whether animal or vegetable, sug-

gests, without feeling that the rejection of a mystery be-

cause it is a mystery is the most besotted form of human

pride/51

Such were some of the favourite paths of speculation

in which Edward Forbes delighted to wander, and it

was with the hope of following them out, and evolving

thereby a broader philosophy of natural history, that he

longed for a life of greater leisure. But the leisure never

came, and we can only conjecture, from the jottings and

fragments which he has left, how much he might have

1 Nat. Hist. Eitrop. Seas, p. 13.


achieved had his life been prolonged. Enough, indeed,

remains to place him in a high rank in the annals of

science. His mind had at once that acuteness and

breadth which enabled him to appreciate the nicest

analogies and affinities, and to soar into the widest

generalizations, to perceive the nature of the minutest

details of structure, and yet never to lose sight of their

bearing on the higher questions of natural history.

Hence, in his works, we find a constant passage from

what might seem unconnected facts to some hypothesis

or speculation that links these facts together, and gives

them significance. If he erred, it was from an over-

anxiety to reach the meaning of isolated observations,

which sometimes, perhaps, led him to theorize on too

narrow a basis, and to over-estimate the value of negative

evidence.

From this tendency, his published works are rather

suggestive than demonstrative. Measured by what he

actually did in natural history, his name cannot be

placed where some of his warm friends would inscribe

it, along with those of Aristotle, Linnaeus, Cuvier, Owenand Goodsir. But it would be unjust so to estimate

him. It must be remembered that he passed away ere

reaching his prime, and he must be tried, not merely by

what in his short lifetime he did himself, but by the

ideas which, scattered by him broad-cast over the world,

have sprung up and are bearing fruit in many lands.

He did more, perhaps, than any other man of his day to

spread abroad a love for natural history;more, undoubt-

edly, than any one of his contemporaries to indicate hownatural history and geology must be woven together.

550 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XV.

The name of Edward Forbes will go down to posterity

inseparably linked with the history of palaeontology, as

one of the greatest naturalists that ever strove to bring his

knowledge of the living world to elucidate the physical

and organic changes in the past history of the earth.

He attained this high eminence not as a solitary

worker. In nothing was his career more marked than

in the power he possessed of interesting others in his

field of labour. His broad philosophical spirit enabled

him to appreciate the researches of the chemist and the

and envy among his fellow-naturalists, and enlisting

his authority in matters of science, as by the influence

of his manly true-hearted nature. On no phase of the

life of Edward Forbes does it seem needful to lay greater

stress than on this, for on no other ground can we ac-

scientific circles only but in society at large. It was not

his mental powers, great though these were, nor his vast

his especial study, that gained him the love and respect

of all men, but a simple kindly heart that knew no selfish-

ness, and embraced in its wide and generous sympathy

all that was honourable and good .

1

1 These features of his character were eloquently expressed than in one short

dwelt upon immediately after his death, tribute to his memory, in which we can

in many of the obituary notices written recognise the vigorous pen of one of oui

by his friends. Nowhere were they more greatest living naturalists. After enu-

physicist, and in return he drew them sympathy with

him into his own domain. In bearing down all jealousy

their active co-operation in the common cause, he stood

forth conspicuous among the scientific men of his time.

And this he accomplished not so much by the weight of

count for the great influence which he exercised not in

knowledge of those branches of science which he made


Although such summary remarks as those which have

been offered in the preceding part of this chapter are

usually deferred until the end of a biography, they

appeared naturally to suggest themselves from a con-

sideration of the period in the life of Edward Forbes to

which we have now come. As the close of his student

days defined that part of his career, which was almost

wholly devoted to Zoology and Botany, so the end of his

London life, some of the characteristic traits of which

have been sketched in the foregoing pages, terminated

that second portion, which was as exclusively given to

Palaeontology and Zoo -Geology. It was in London that

he made himself famous, and from the work which he

accomplished there must his place be determined in the

bead-roll of science. No man could have so predicted

at the time, and by none was it anticipated so little as

by Forbes himself. In leaving London for another

sphere of labour, he meant that the nature of his work

should also, to some extent at least, be changed. To

merating some of the leading features

of Forbes’s mind, this writer goes on to

say :—

“

It was not these qualities whichdistinguished him so highly beyond his

fellows. To say that he had them will

not enable those who stood without the

privileged circle of his friends to com-prehend why, within that circle, the old

mourn him as a son, and the young as a

brother. It is not because he was so

gifted that the veterans of science oneand all affirm his loss to be irreparable

;

and the aspirants know that they maysucceed, but cannot replace him. Ouraffections cling to character and not to

intellect;and rare as was the genius of

Edward Forbes, his character was rarer

still. The petty vanities and heart-

burnings which are the besetting sins of

men of science and of men of letters,

had no hold upon his large and generous

nature;he did not even understand

them in others. A thorough spirit of

charity—a complete toleration for every-

thing but empiricism and pettiness,

seemed to hide from him all but the

good and worthy points in his fellow-

men. If he ever wronged a man, it wasby making him fancy himself better than

he was. Worked to death, his time andhis knowledge were at the disposal of

all comers;and though his published

works have been comparatively few,

his ideas have been as the grain of mus-tard seed in the parable—they havegrown into trees and brought forth

fruit an hundredfold;

but he neverseemed to think it worth while to claimhis share.”—Literary Gazelle, 25th No-vember 1854.

MEMOIR OF CHAP. XV.

Edinburgh he returned full of hope. He resolved to

free himself from the restraint under which geology had

too imperiously bound him, and to resume once more,

amid the scenes of his youth, those natural history pur-

suits on which he had raised the foundations of his fame.

In quiet and leisure he hoped to reduce to order and to

writing the vast mass of knowledge which he had

gathered during these busy years, and to elaborate

those broad philosophic views of the connexion of the

natural history sciences to which his observations had

gradually led him. How he entered upon this work we

have now to see.

Few men were ever called to a University chair amid

such general gratulations as now hailed the advent of

Edward Forbes to the Natural History Professorship at

Edinburgh. From all parts of the country his old class-

fellows repaired to their A hna Mater to do him honour.

There was no party difference to mar the harmony of

the re-union. The universally admitted genius and range

of acquirements of the new Professor disarmed all petty

cavilling, and there arose one unbroken note of joy and

welcome. On the 15th of May, the largest class-room

of the University was filled to overflowing. Crowding

the benches were youths who had heard of the fame of

the great teacher, and who had come early to make sure

of catching the first accents of his voice;others having

long- known and studied his works, now hurried to see


the man who had instructed and delighted them. Here

and there, too, among the crowd was an older head, one

that had been young when Forbes himself was a fellow-

student in the same class-room many years before. These,

with his readiness of memory, he speedily recognised.

Around him were some of those who had been professors

when he was still a wayward student;some of his old

fellow- students had risen to assume the professorial

gown, and were now at his side to give him a hearty

welcome into their number. He stood at the head of a

school, and as the successor of a man of European repu -

tation. The dream of his youth, when he used to sit on

these very benches, was now realized. All the associa-

tions of the past, and all the glorious anticipations of the

future, passed rapidly in review as he rose to deliver the

inaugural address.

When we reflect upon the state of mental excitement

in which he had spent the last few weeks of his London

life, and the suddenness of the call to lecture in Edin-

burgh, we cannot but marvel at the thoughtfulness as

well as the dignity of his opening discourse. Its early

part was full of reference to his own student days at

Edinburgh, and the character of the natural history

studies there pursued. After expounding his views of

the true method of teaching natural history by the ex-

position of its principles, the value of this science as a

means of intellectual training, and its inter-connexion

with the sciences that deal with extinct organisms, howgracefully and with what measured dignity does he con-

clude by pronouncing the Eloge of his old master into

whose place he now ascends !—

554 MEM01K OF CIIAP. XV.

“ But the hour is shortening, and I must conclude. After manyyears of study, and travel, and precious opportunities for acquiring ex-

perience, I return to the city where I was first initiated into the science

of nature, and where within these walls I learned those lessons of

patient inquiry and minute observation, to whose working and training

I am indebted for the place that I now hold among the Professors of

my A Ima Mater. To my illustrious predecessor and master who passed

from amongst us ripe in years, honours, and fame, so lately, I grate-

fully record my acknowledgments for the encouragement of those tastes

and the founding of that knowledge which have proved to me a chief

delight. Who, that in time past was his pupil and found pleasure in

the study of any department of natural history, can ever forget his

enthusiastic zeal, his wonderful acquaintance with scientific literature,

his affection for all among his friends and pupils who manifested a sin-

cere interest in his favourite studies 1 When, in after life, their fates

scattered them far and wide over the world, some settling amid the

civilized obscurity of rural seclusion;some rambling to the far ends of

the earth to sift and explore wild savage regions;some plunging into

the boiling and noisy whirlpool of metropolitan activity;none who re-

mained constant to the beautiful studies of his pupilhood was ever

forgotten by the kind and wise philosopher, whose quick and cheering

perception of early merit had perpetuated tastes that might have speedily

perished if unobserved and unencouraged. The value of professorial

worth should chiefly be estimated by the number and excellence of dis-

ciples. A large share of the best naturalists of the day received their

first instruction in the science that was afterwards to prove their foun-

tain of honour from Professor Jameson. Not even his own famous

master, the eloquent and illustrious Werner, could equal him in this

genesis of investigators. Under his auspices, too, were lasting friend-

ships and unions of kindred minds formed that have been productive in

good to the cause of knowledge. Valuable as were his writings—each,

when estimated with regard to the position of science at the time of its

issue, an effective advance—his pupils were even more valuable. The

greatest praise of a great Professor is that which proclaims he has

founded a school. And where else in the British empire, except here,

has there been for the last half century a school of Natural History 1

I have a difficult task before me, gentlemen, with those traditions of

greatness to overshadow my endeavours. But since this most honour-

able and responsible office has been placed in my charge—the highest


to which a British naturalist can aspire—with God’s blessing and your

assisting exertions I will endeavour fully and fairly to do my duty.”

His first experiences of a return to Edinburgh are

best told in his own words. To Mr. Ramsay he writes,

11th June 1854 :—

“ I have given three weeks of daily lectures, except

on Saturdays ;hard work, as I have to find where every-

thing in the way of illustration is, and I spend hours in

chalking and painting extempore diagrams and tables.

But I shall go through with it, and a large class is

wonderfully inspiriting. My class-room (fitted up capi-

tally, except ventilation, and exclusively mine—a great

comfort) holds 200, and is filled every day. Of myaudience I have 130 and odd paying students. Yester-

day I took them out on a geological excursion, to give

them some elementary notions in stratification, etc., in

the sandstone quarries, and along the coast section. 1

marched at the head of more than a hundred fellows,

most armed with hammers.

“Balfour had as many in another direction botan-

izing with him. We shall turn out a fine set of natu-

ralizing youths by and by. So you see things look well%

here. And, after all, it is a great matter to feel quite

free, and to be able to do what one likes, as long as the

class duties are properly done and the museum flourish-

ing. Those who talk of banishment forget how many

clever men are here still. Independent of the doctors,

here are old Fleming, Maclaren, James and George Wil-

son, Chambers, Grcville, Aytoun, Blackie, etc. etc., and

in the way of poets, we have Alexander Smith. Then

there are artists with good stuff in them, old Watson

556 MEMOIR OF CIIAP. XV.

Gordon, a very fine genius, at their head. They seemall, too, to pull smoothly together, and there are capital

materials for red-lionism.

“ 1 am living in lodgings in Princes Street, all alone,

for I cannot get rid of that rascally house in WimpoleStreet, and dare not leave it for fear of some scrape.

Mrs. Forbes and the children remain there for the pre-

sent, and come here next month. We shall probably

take a lodging at Granton alongside of James 1 and his

wife, where I can leave Mrs. Forbes when I go to town in

August. I hope to find a house to settle in before October,

but will be up to the Liverpool meeting in September/'

The reference to “ Red-lionism ” in this note is

eminently characteristic. The “ capital materials " were

very soon made available, for on the 14th June, exactly

a month after his arrival in Edinburgh, he announces a

Fed Lion dinner to take place at the Cafe Royal on the

same evening that the metropolitan “ Lions ” met in

Anderton’s Hotel. The first meeting consisted of six,

all either metropolitan or association “ Reds," who formed

the nucleus of the Edinburgh tribe. They spent, as Forbes

expressed it, “a very jolly evening of the right sort."

The extent and value of the collections in the Museum

of the Edinburgh College filled him with astonishment.

“I find Jameson’s collection wonderful," he said, “even

paleontologically, and brought up by judicious purchases

to the last moment." Again,—“ The amount of material

for illustrating the course here is very great, and the de-

tails of the lecture-room very complete."

Often before coming to Edinburgh he had expressed

1 Col. Sir Henry James, R. E.


his belief that the Museum and the natural history school

there might be made, perhaps, the first in the world for

educational purposes. His love for a trinity of things

found a place here too, and he spoke of his colleagues,

the Professors of Anatomy and Botany, uniting with

himself as a triad that would make Edinburgh famous.

His own part of the scheme he commenced with vigour

and success. The collections in the Museum stood

greatly in need of re-arrangement. Many of the most

valuable and illustrative specimens were stored away in

inaccessible drawers and boxes, and in the general dis-

position of the Museum, too much regard was had to

artistic arrangement, and too little to scientific order.

To the thorough re-modelling of this noble collection

Forbes now deliberately addressed himself.

In the lower room of the Museum some attempt was

made to group the stuffed specimens of Yertebrata accord-

ing to their natural orders, as far at least as was compa

tible with a good general effect. In the principal room,

though many important changes were planned, the col-

lections were yet in great measure left untouched. Some

minor modifications deserve notice. For the purpose

of illustrating his lectures he placed in a small glass

cabinet in the centre of the apartment, selected examples

of the genera that formed the subject of the previous

day’s lecture. The students had thus an opportunity of

examining in detail specimens which it was impossible

fully to describe in the class-room, and which, owing to

the distance of the hearers from the lecturer, could not be

adequately understood by them. When not used for the

purposes of the lecture, this special cabinet was appropri-

558 MEMOIll OF CHAP. XV.

atecl for the display of rare, or otherwise interesting

specimens recently added to the Museum.

He made abundant use of his pencil in these arrange-

ments, sketching restorations of fragmentary organisms

or diagrams of anatomical structure on small cards affixed

to the specimens. Thus in depositing a series of bones

of the gigantic extinct bird called the Dinomis, he drew

a rough sketch to show the relative size of that ancient

denizen of New Zealand as compared with the living

Cassowary. In the rendering of geological sections his

hand was peculiarly happy. Two of these still illustrate

the series of typical specimens of the igneous rocks of

the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, which he arranged in

a small recess of the principal room;and one of them, a

bold and ingenious restoration, shows the relative ages of

the volcanic masses of Arthur's Seat .

1

The long narrow room up-stairs called the “ Upper

Gallery," was intended to become eventually the reposi-

tary of a British Zoological collection. In the meantime

Forbes made it available for the illustration of types of

all the leading divisions of the Animal Kingdom, in

regular series from the Protozoa to the Mammalia, illus-

trative cards with occasional pen-and-ink sketches of

generic distinctions being interspersed among the orders .'2

The popularity of his lectures was very great. Four

1 In tlie section here referred to, Forbes

shrewdly conjectures that the later

rocks of Arthur Seat were so far separated

from the older ones as to merit being

classed with the Tertiary deposits. Hewas possibly led to this by the associa-

tion of igneous rocks with the mioceue (?)

leaf-beds of Mull. The posteriority of

the one series to the other had been ad-

mirably shown by Maclaren ( Geology of

Fife and the Lothians, Edin. 1839) and

has since been still further demonstrated

from an enlarged basis of evidence by

one of the writers of this biography in

the Memoirs of the Geological Survey.2 Information communicated to Pro-

fessor George Wilson by Dr. Spencer

Cobbold.


days a week lie lectured on Zoology, reserving the Fridays

for geological exposition, and occasional Saturdays for

excursions in the neighbourhood. It was his aim to pie-

sent a general idea of the grouping and zoological value

of the various families, orders, and genera, rather than to

enter into the minute physiological details of any par-

ticular division. At the same time, we cannot wonder

that by much the greater part of the first course was

devoted to the invertebrata, his own special field, while

the vertebrate division had to be hurried over towards

the close of the session.

In unfolding the structure and relations of recent

organisms he never lost an opportunity of enforcing the

necessity of studying the extinct forms. Zoology and

Palaeontology, he insisted, ought never to be dissevered,

the existing creation being but the last link of a great

chain of which the previous ones lay entombed among

the rocks. His geological lectures had special reference

to the geology of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and

were illustrated by copious suites of specimens as well

as diagrams mostly drawn by himself.

One of the most memorable features of his lectures,

was the ease, grace, and rapidity with which he drew on

the black board the outlines of the animals he described,

using coloured chalks to mark the different structural

characters to which he wished to draw attention. The

late Hugh Miller was an occasional auditor in the class-

room this summer, and shared in the wonder with which

these rapid impromptu drawings were always hailed. In

a sketch of Edward Forbes, which he inserted in the

Witness newspaper, lie wrote, “The feeling comes upon

5 GO MEMOIR OF CHAP. XV.

us in all its freshness, how in his recent summer course,

when he was demonstrating the structure of those almost

translucent marine creatures of which he was the prime

expositor, the interest of his original descriptions was

almost lost in the admiration of the beautifully graceful

forms which seemed to arise, as if by magic, from beneath

his long and delicate fingers, and how a murmur of ap-

plause was not refrained from by his admiring audience,

spectators rather, they might then be called.” 1 The dex-

terity too, with which, by a few touches, he corrected any

error in the outline made while sketching, and continuing

his exposition, was truly wonderful. On one occasion he

was describing the delicately-whorled shell Clausilict, an

old favourite that had delighted him on discovering it at

Arthur s Seat during one of his first rambles when a

student in Edinburgh. In rapidly drawing the outline

of this species, Forbes perceived he had reversed the

spiral, but immediately detecting his error, the fines were

at once efianged with the same ease and correctness of

proportions.

No part of tins summer course of natural history

afforded more delight than the periodical excursions on

alternate Saturdays, when, at the head of a hundred

youths or more, armed with hammers, chisels, and other

implements, Forbes traversed the country roads, rambled

along the shores, or hired a steamer and visited some of

the islands of the Forth. No one enjoyed these excur-

sions more than himself, and he makes frequent refer-

ence to them in Ins letters. Tlius, to Mr. Reeks on lltli

July, he writes :

—

1 Witness of 22d November 1854.


“ We had a great field-day on Saturday ;200 students

(including the botanists, headed by Professor Balfour) in

a steamer, with dredges, hammers, etc. etc., and a cold

collation. The day was fine, and so many fellows

jumped overboard when the steamer anchored, to swim

ashore, leaving their clothes, that Inchkeith looked like

an island inhabited by naked savages. James was with

us, and we had a jolly party/’

By the middle of July he had been joined by Mrs.

Forbes and the children, and took a cottage at Warclie,

near the coast, about two miles from Edinburgh. The

last lecture of his summer course was given on the 26th

of the same month, and he then concluded his first session

by three days of field geology round Loch Lomond,

with a select band of his students, augmented by a de-

tachment of botanists from Professor Balfour’s class.

“After a hard struggle to keep up to the mark,” he

writes to Sir Roderick Murchison, “ I have got through

my summer’s lectures, ending by taking my students for

three days into the Highlands, to teach them how to

observe in a mountain country. I have some promising

young geologists among them, and fully expect to

turn out some thoroughly good men in a year or two.

Hammers and bags, chisels and clinometers, have come

into sudden fashion, and threaten to rival botanical

boxes.”

The suddenness of Ins departure from London had,

of course, left much in the Museum in Jermyn Street

still unfinished. His Isle of Wight memoir, and someof the Decades of the Survey, formed part of the uncom-pleted work. Early in August, accordingly, after his

2 N


Highland ramble, he went to London, and remained there

hard at work, until, at the end of the month, he had an

attack of illness which warned him to get north again

as speedily as possible. On the first of September he

wrote a short note from the Edinburgh Museum to Mr.

Ramsay :

—

“After trying to work in the heat and poison of

London, I succumbed, and on Sunday last was seized

with diarrhoea and vomiting, so that I was glad to rush

off on Monday to see David, and thence to come here.

I shall, however, be at Liverpool. ... I am much taken

with Maclaren’s name of ‘ calciferous sandstone/ applied

to the series of beds between the Encrinite limestone

and the true Old Red. This series includes the Granton,

etc., building stones. The carboniferous slates of Ireland

are equivalents.

“Fossils being rare, I am working hard at minerals,

my old love for which is reviving, and with such a col-

lection in my charge, I cannot help taking them up.

Years ago I was as fond of them as afterwards of fossils,

and all their old names seem to come up again.”

With these studies in the Museum, he combined,

during the early part of September, several short ex-

cursions from Edinburgh, as one—his last dredging day

—with Drs. Balfour, Macdonald, and Wyville Thompson,

to the coast of North Berwick, and another with Mrs.

Forbes and his brother David to Loch Lomond. He

also spent three days at Jardine Hall in Dumfriesshire,

and during a geological excursion in that neighbourhood

was exposed for some hours to a drenching rain which

chilled him thoroughly, and was followed by pain in the


lumbar region, of which he continued to complain until

his last illness.

The British Association was to assemble at Liverpool

on the 20th day of the month, and he hastened to be

present at the meeting. It was a fitting, though unfore-

seen close to his long and honourable connexion with

the Association that now, when on the eve of quitting it

for ever, he should obtain its highest sectional honour.

He was elected to fill the President’s chair in the Geo-

I

logical Section, and took his seat as umpire among

veterans in the science— Lyell, Murchison, Sedgwick,

Owen, and a band of younger, but widely known men,

his own warm friends and comrades. For so young a

man, the honour was at that time unique, but it fell to

one whose tact and judgment were not less remarkable

than his geniality. And such a chairman was peculiarly

needed at this juncture, for it was known that the meet-

ing would not pass away without a lively, possibly an

angry debate. The vexed question of nomenclature, in

which the two chiefs, Sedgwick and Murchison, differed,

and which had been so keenly discussed already before

the Geological Society, was to come up again at this

meeting. The debate proved, indeed, a stormy one.

Forbes found his friends ranged on different sides, and

had, of course, his own decided opinion on the question.

Yet in this delicate and difficult position, by the con-

current testimony of all present, he acquitted himself to

the satisfaction of every one. And at the close of the

!

meeting, Sedgwick, on whom a generous deed was never

lost, even though Forbes dissented from his views, pro-

nounced upon him a noble eulogium.


At this meeting Forbes read two papers.

1. On the foliation of some metamorphic rocks in

Scotland.

2. On some points connected with the natural his-

tory of the Azores.

The first of these communications resulted from his

excursion to Loch Lomond, and contained an expression

of his belief, that the cleavage and foliation of rocks were

the results of distinct processes. The second paper was

suggested by the researches of Mr. Macandrew.

While in Liverpool, he remained with Mrs. Forbes

and a pleasant party, at the hospitable mansion of Mr.

Macandrew. Mr. Jukes, who was one of the guests, has

furnished some notes of this meeting. “ Forbes,” he

says, “ got through the business of the section well, but

often complained of exhaustion when he got back to din-

ner;and once or twice I observed him ask rather eagerly

for port wine. There was, too, a somewhat worn and

anxious expression in his face, and occasionally he com-

plained of not feeling well. One evening, which we had

anticipated would be spent without interruption in Mr.

Macandrew’s study, discussing a few scientific questions

that had been long pending between us, was sadly en-

croached upon by a stranger, who, armed with note-book

and pencil, had come to consult poor Forbes. The latter

was kept on the stretch for full two hours, yet with the

utmost patience and good humour he took pains to satisfy

his unreasonable questioner, who, it appeared, was en-

gaged in writing some book or treatise on Natural His-

tory, and had come fully determined to extract all he

could out of the President of the Geological Section. On


the occasion of the Red Lion dinner at this meeting,

Forbes presided with even more than usual of his wit,

vivacity, and humour, making a most humorous speech

in the character of the Scottish Lion, about the rights

of which there had just then been a discussion in the

newspapers/'

In returning to Edinburgh, he spent a week in Dum-friesshire. On the 9th of October, he writes from the

College Museum, Edinburgh :

—

“ Dear Jukes,

—

We only got back on Saturday

night. We divided the week between an old student

and naval friend, who has had the luck of having a fine

estate and house left him, and now sits in the midst of

his books, delighting in Hebrew, Greek, and all the lan-

guages, and keeps open house, and Sir William Jardine,

who keeps open house likewise. Harkness came on a

visit to Jardine Hall, and we had a nice run over the

geology of Dumfriesshire. I am now preparing for the

coming session."

In another note of the same date to Sir Henry de la

Beche, he expresses his belief that “ certain beds which

have been mapped as carboniferous in Dumfriesshire are

really Permian." 1

In Ins leisure moments during the autumn he hadbeen engaged in a critique of Sir R, I. Murchison's“ Siluria," which appeared in the October number of the

Quarterly Review. As the last of his writings it has a

mournful interest and meaning in the broad, generous

spirit, which breathing through its pages, comes to us as

1 Since this conjecture of Forbes, Mr. tended the area of the Permian strata inHarkness and Mr. Binny have both ex- the south of Scotland.

MEMOIR OF CHAP. XV.56 G

it were his latest legacy. His parting words addressed

to the scientific world, seem like the embodiment of the

idea of his whole life.

“ The old Scandinavian gods amused themselves all

day in then- Valhalla, hacking each other to small pieces,

but when the time of feasting came, sat down together

entire and harmonious, all their wounds healed and for-

gotten. Our modern Thors, the hammer-wielders of

science, enjoy similar rough sport with like pleasant end-

ing. Men, whose work, both of head and hand, is done

mainly under the broad sky, and along the craggy sides

of mountains, heedless of weather and toil, are not likely

to use mincing forms of speech, or modify then senti-

ments when engaged in discussions, though all the

time mildness and mercy are at the foundation of all

their thoughts. Better men and truer, whether in field or

council, there are not living than the two famous geolo-

gists, the nature of whose differences we have endeavoured

to expound. They have worked long and well in co-

operation, heart and hand united;and though the for-

tune of scientific war has led in the end to the crossing

of their pens, the names of Sedgwick and Murchison will

go down to posterity side by side, and bracketed together

in the glorious list of benefactors of mankind through

the advancement of science/’1

He returned to Edinburgh some weeks before the

opening of the winter session at the College. These

he employed chiefly in preparing for his lectures and

arranging the commencement of the New Philosophi-

cal Journal, formerly conducted by Professor Jameson,

1 Quarterly Review, No. cxc. p. 383.


and now intrusted to the editorship of Dr. Anderson and

himself. He had found great difficulty in obtaining a

suitable house in Edinburgh, and had, in the meantime,

eno-ao-ed a furnished house for six months, from the 20tho o

of November. This inability to find a “ home ” weighed,

to a marked degree, on his spirits. At last the College

opened on Wednesday the 1st November, and the Natural

History class began on the same day.

The manifest weakness which had attracted the notice

of his friends at Liverpool still continued, augmented, as

he maintained, by the effects of exposure to wet and cold

during his trip to Dumfriesshire. Although not nervous

as a lecturer, his hand was observed to tremble as he

raised it from the desk on which it often rested during

the delivery of his introductory lecture. 1

“ He complained,” says Dr. Bennett, “ of chills and

feverishness indicating, as he insisted, a return of his old

enemy, the remittent fever he had caught in Greece, and

for which he took quinine.” But in spite of the urgent

entreaties of some of his friends, he continued to lecture

during the rest of the week, superintending the enrol-

ment of his numerous students, and the arrangements of

the Museum.

On Sunday the 5th, Dr. Bennett was summoned to

his bedside, and found him labouring under slightly

febrile symptoms with an accelerated pulse. Forbes had

intended that day to walk with Mrs. Forbes to the Dean

1 This lecture was found among liis typographical blunders. For example,papers after his death, and printed in on p. 155 it is stated that “ natural his-

the Edin. Phil. Jour. (New Ser.) for tory, under its subsciences, physics andJanuary 1855. The indistinctness of chemistry,” cannot do much for utilita-

his handwriting, however, has led to the rian interests, instead of “natural his-

commission of a great many egregious tory, unlike its sister sciences.”


Cemetery, which lie greatly admired, and often visited,

and which he said he should wish to be his last resting-

place. But he found himself too weak for so long a walk.

He insisted, however, on going to the College next day

as usual, and such was his anxiety regarding the for-

mation of his class, that he continued to lecture during

the next three days. His weakness became still more

perceptible in the class-room. Before commencing his

prelection, he was observed by his students to mix up a

white powder (quinine) in water, and drink it off with

a trembling hand. On the Thursday he felt too ill to

continue the duties of his class, and hoping that a

few days of rest would restore him, he announced his

intention of suspending his lectures until the following

Monday. The febrile symptoms, however, continued

to increase. On Saturday he wrote to the Professor

of Botanv :—

»/

“ Dear Balfour,—My prospect of mastering myillness depends on my remaining a-bed to-day and to-

morrow.

“ The fifteen students of whom you wrote, have cer-

tainly not as yet entered my class. I have fifty-four fresh

entries, of these not more than twenty-six or twenty-eight

are medical. As each man has entered I have asked him

what his pursuits are, and how the hour of lecture affects

him.” He then enters into the reasons for not altering

the hour of his lecture, as had been proposed by some of

his colleagues. “ For my own part I hold that to change

any one hour of lecture after the arrangements of the ses-

sion are complete and advertised, is both deleterious and

unbusiness-like. . . . The first consideration should be

1854. EDWARD FORBES, 569

the academical convenience ;the next, the propriety, it

there are to be changes, of announcing them in prospect

a full session beforehand ;the last, private convenience.

—Ever, dear Balfour, most sincerely yours,

“ Edward Forbes/’

The repose from the fatigues of the class-room could

not arrest the progress of the disease. He began on the

Sunday to complain of obscure pain in his back, and it

soon became only too evident that he was suffering from a

nephritic affection of a very grave nature. Some matters

of business which he had left incomplete continued to press

upon his mind, especially the formation of his class, the

preparation of the new edition of his Palaeontological

Map for Johnston’s Physical Atlas, and the first number

of the New Philosophical Journal. On Monday evening,

with a hand that could scarcely hold the pen, he wrote,

in hardly legible characters, Ins last note :

—

“ Monday evening .

—

Dear Balfour,— I am com-

pletely shattered for the moment, and don’t know how

to get on with the Journal, being so ill. Could you look

in upon me and advise. Come here, i.e., Wardie. I amstill in my bed.—Ever, E. Forbes.”

On Tuesday, when rising, he experienced sudden and

acute agony, his pulse became rapid and weak, and he

himself discovered the nature of the disease, remarking

to his wife, “ 1 know it will go very hard with me;

it is

the kidneys again.” When Dr. Balfour went to see him

he was unable to speak. His old friend and fellow-

student, Professor Goodsir, was, with Dr. Bennett, con


stant in liis attendance in the sick-chamber, tending

Forbes with a brotherly assiduity.

On Wednesday, Dr. Balfour found him “ rather easier,

and able to give directions about the papers for the Jour-

nal;he spoke with great anxiety about his pupils and

his class, and gave a message to several of them/' Hewould not admit that his illness was of a hopeless kind.

He had been similarly prostrated before, he said, and be-

lieved he had enough of vis in him to weather this second

attack. He could not bear to lose sight of his wife for a

second. She sat with him, and wrote his letters, but

he spoke very little.

On Thursday morning he appeared much better. Dr.

Bennett and Mr. Goodsir having occasion to be in Edin-

burgh, Mrs. Forbes watched him alone all day. About

dusk she saw a change come slowly over his features.

Soon after this the doctors returned, and they were

compelled at last to admit that no hope remained.

He requested to know their real opinion of his case.

When it was told him, he remained for a long while silent.

“ I was not ambitious,” he said;“ I hoped and wished for

the Edinburgh chair because I thought I could do good

there.” He referred to his having been overworked, and

to the anxiety the Town-Council had occasioned him by

insisting on his leaving London so hurriedly to lecture in

Edinburgh. He more than once reverted to this subject,

on one occasion observing, with a touch of his wonted

humour, “ The bailies have killed the goose that laid the

golden eggs.”

On the morning of Friday he kissed the children be-

fore Dr. Christison took them to the house of Dr. Bennett.


All day he continued to grow weaker, and Ills wife

watched him alone. In the evening, her uncle, the

Rev. Mr. Rooke, who had been telegraphed for, arrived,

and wrote a short will, by which Forbes left his children

under the entire care and control of his wife, his papers

to Mr. Godwin Austen, and his natural history collections

to the College Museum of Edinburgh. Mr Rooke then

read prayers with him, in which Forbes joined. When

his wife asked if he would like to receive the Holy

Communion, “ Very much,” he said, “but I am too weak

now.”

The pain was in great measure gone, but the pulse

grew feebler, and the face more pallid. In addition to

the constant and devoted nursing of his wife, Mr. Good-

sir and Dr. Bennett shared alternately the care of tending

him, the former spending the night with him. On Satur-

day, Mrs. Hay (Mrs. Forbes's sister) arrived, and he

expressed great gratification at seeing her again. From

this time, however, he hardly spoke. His wife stood

supporting his head, and repeating anything said in the

room, for he seemed unable to hear any voice but hers.

His face gradually wore a strange depth of expression, as

if, in his profound reverie, he saw beyond this world.

When recalled by being spoken to, his eyes closed, and a

gleam of pain seemed to pass across his features. Hesuffered greatly from a feeling of suffocation, but other-

wise there was no pain. Late in the afternoon, Dr.

Bennett was obliged to leave him for a short time,

intending to return with Mr. Goodsir in the evening,

as death, though plainly inevitable, was not looked for

till night. Before quitting the room he gave some in-


structions in a whisper to the nurse, but these were cut

short by Forbes, who interposed—“ That will do, Bennett,

no more of that,” evidently meaning that all further

efforts at restoration were useless. The end was nowvery near. Pressing his friend's hand, he said, referring

to Mrs. Forbes, who had just left the room, “Be kind to

her and the little ones.” A return of the pressure, and

the reply, “ I will,” assured him that all would be well

with them. When his wife returned he was speechless.

As she took his head again in her arm, he opened his

eyes and smiled, and signed to her to kiss him. To her

inquiry if he still knew her, he could only faintly whisper,

“My own wife.”

Another hour crept on, during which he said nothing,

though his eye showed that he remained in the full pos-

session of his faculties. And then, as twilight was

deepening into dusk, the spirit passed imperceptibly

away.

On the afternoon of Thursday the 23d November

the Principal and Senatus of the University of Edinburgh,

with a numerous band of students, the Lord Provost and

Magistrates, in their robes of office, and a large con-

course of the citizens, including followers of science from

far and near, assembled to pay the last tribute of honour

to the great naturalist. They met at the Dean Chapel,

and thence moved sadly and slowly westwards to the

Cemetery of the Dean, winding through the walks of

that most sequestered of sleeping-places to a gentle,

tree-shaded slope that overlooks the deep ravine of the

1S5-1. EDWARD FORBES. 5 73

Water of Leith. And there, among the well-explored

scenes of his youth;within sight of the sea, of whose

wonders he was a prime expositor;

within hearing

of the hushed and mellowed hum of the city that had

witnessed the efforts of his earlier years, and been

from first to last the goal of his life and his cherished

haven of rest;amid grief too deep for utterance, the

earth closed over all that was mortal of Edward

Forbes.

APPENDIX.

LIST OF PROFESSOR FORBES’S WRITINGS.

Date. Subject.

1831. On some Manx Traditions, Mirror.

1832. On tlie “ Man-Keeper ” of Scott, do.

1834. On British Species of Patella, University Journal.

“Parting,” a short Poem(a Quiz), do.

On the Phrenological Development of the do.

Cheese-Mite.

1835. Natural Histoiy Tour in Norway (four Papers), Loudon’s Mag. of Nat. Hist.

Ser. 1, vhi. 65, 249, 305 ;

ix. 169.

“ University Maga,” vol. i. (many articles by

Forbes.)

Records of Dredging (three papers), Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 1, vhi.

68, 591 ;ix. 191.

1836. Note on Blennius Ocellaris, Do., Ser. 1, ix. 203.

1837. On the Comparative Elevation of Testacea in Mag. Zool. & Bot. 1837, i.

the Alps. 257.

On a New British Viola, Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin.

On a New British Polygala, do.

The “ Pint of Wine.” A Song, Manx Sun.

Political Song, Fraser’s Mag. (April.)“ Ducks and Green Peas,” in Two Sonnets, ... do.

On New and Rare Forms of British Plants andAnimals (read before the British Associa-

tion, Liverpool), Rep. Brit. Ass. Sect. p. 102.1837-8. “ University Maga,” vol. ii. (many articles by

Forbes.)

1838. Letter on the “ Snow-ball Riots,” Edinburgh Advertiser.Six Songs on the University Riots Fly-leaves.

Battle of the Quadrangle.

The Gallant 79th.

New Song.

Down with Mob and Charlies.

A Student true my Love, etc.

Here’s to the Heroes of ’38.

57G APPENDIX.

Pate. Subject.

1838. Malacologia Monensis,

Tlie University Snowdrop,

(A pamphlet containing a selection of

the songs written after the snow-ball riots,

and including the six by Forbes givenabove.)

On the Specific Claims of Primula acaulis,

veris, and elatior,

On the Distribution of Pulmoniferous Mollusca

in Europe (read before Brit. Association,) ...

On the Primula elatior of Jacquin,

On the Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of Al-

giers and Bougia

1839. Review of Johnston’s British Zoophytes,

“Le pour et le Contre,” a Song from Des-

angiers,

On Two British Species of Cydippe,“ Time,” a Song from Beranger,

Notice of a Botanical Excursion to the Moun-tains of Ternova,

Notice of Researches in Shetland,

On the British Ciliograda (in conjunction with

Mr. Goodsir),

Report on the Distribution of Pulmoniferous

Mollusca in the British Islands,

The Dudley Expedition, an Association Med-

ley.

On the Asteriadm of the Irish Sea,

On the Association of Mollusca on the British

Coasts, considered with reference to Pleis-

tocene Geology.

On a Shell-bank in the Irish Sea,

Squib, in verse, on Revivals,

Parody on Old English Gentleman,

Observations on the Objects of Philosophical

Associations,

1840. On the Botany of Trieste (read before Botani-

cal Society, 14th November 1839,

“ A Night Scene ” (a little poem),

Abstracts of his Lectures at Liverpool,

On some New and Rare British Mollusca,

The Origin of the Garden Rose (a little poem),

On certain Continental Plants, etc.,

On the British Actiuiadse,

On Corymorpha Nutans (along with Mr.

Goodsir),

Note on Animalcules,“ Dark Eyes,” a Song,

On the British Ciliograda, i in conjunction with

On Pelonaia, )Mr. Goodsir,

1 vol. 12mo, 70 pp.

Pamphlet, 24 pages.

Ann. Nat. Hist. n. 140.

Brit. Ass. Rep. Sect. p. 112.

Ann. Nat. Hist. in. 124.

Ann. Nat. Hist. n. 250.

Ann. Nat. Hist. m. 46.

Edin. Univ. Mag.

Ann. Nat. Hist. tii. 145.

Edin. Univ. Mag. No. m.

Ann. Nat. Hist. ra. 236.

Brit. Ass. Rep. 1839.

do.

do. p. 127.

Lit. Gazette, Sept. 7.

Wernerian Mem. vm.Edin. Acad. Ann. 1840.

See Mem. Geol. Survey

Great Brit. i. 371.

Ann. Nat. Hist. iv. 217.

Fife Herald, December,

do.

do.

Ann. Nat. Hist. iv. 307.

L’pool High School Mag.

Liverpool Albion.

Ann. Nat. Hist. v. 102.

Glasgow College Album.

Bot. Soc. Trans.

Ann. Nat. Hist. v. 180.

do. v. 309.

do. v. 363.

Manx Sun.

Brit. Assoc. Rep. Sect. pp.

137, 141.

LIST OF WRITINGS. 577

Date. Subject.

1840. Dredging Report,

On a Pleistocene Tract in tlie Isle of Man

Dredging Song,

John Chinaman : A Jolly New Ballad on the

Chinese War,

Zoo-Geological Considerations on the Fresh-

water Mollusca,

On Lottia Pulchella,

On the Genus Euplocamus, • .

On the Blood of Nudibranchia,

Abstract of a Lecture on Zoo-Geology and

Psychology.

1841. Note on the Cause of Ciliary Motion,

Abstract of Classification of the Mollusca,

Contributions to British Actinology,

Note on the Appendages of the Anthers in the

Genus "Viola,

On a New Genus of Ascidian Molluscs,

On Two Remarkable Marine Invertebrata, in-

habiting the TEgean Sea,

On Thalassema and Echiurus, in conjunction

with Mr. Goodsir.

On Pelonaia, in conjunction with Mr. Goodsir,

A History of British Star-fishes. 1 vol. 8vo.

1842. Letter on the Rev. Mr. Daniell’s Travels

Letters on Travels in Lycia, etc.,

1843. On Maianthemum Bifolium,

On a New Star-fish,

On Pectinura, and the Species of Ophiura in-

habiting the Eastern Mediterranean.

Retrospective Comments (Natural History), ...

Note in Reply to Mr. Hassal,

Lecture on Botany,

On the Radiata of the Eastern Mediterranean,

Abstract of Papers read at the British Asso-

ciation.

Report on the Mollusca and Radiata of the

ZEgean Sea,

“ Blarney Unvisited," a Song

On the Species of Neaera inhabiting the ZEgean

Sea

Deliciae Scientiarum,

Epigram on Buckland being made M.D.,

Directions for Dredging,

1844. “Through Archipelagos of Hearts,” a Song,...

2 0

Brit. Ass. Rep. Sect. p. 444.

do. p. 104.

Literary Gazette, Nov. 7.

do. Nov. 14.

Ann. Nat, Hist. vi. 241.

do. vi. 316.

do. vi. 317.

do. do.

Soottish Standard news-

paper.

Edin. Monthly Medical

Journal, i.

Jameson’s Jour. 1841.

Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.

vii. 81.

Do., p. 157.

Do., p. 345.

Rep. Brit. Ass. 1841, Sect,

p. 72.

Edin. New Phil. Jour. xxx.

369.

Do., xxxi. 29.

Athenaeum.

Ann. Nat. Hist. ix. 239 ;

x. 59, 124, 205, 348.

Ann. Nat. Hist. xi. 159.

do. xi. 280.

Do., xi. 463;Trans. Lin.

Soc. xix.

Ann. Nat. Hist. xii. 40.

do. xii. 188.

Pamphlet, published by

Van Voorst.

Trans. Linn. Soc. xix. 143.

Athenaeum and Literary

Gazette.

Rep. Brit. Ass. 1843, 130.

Literary Gazette.

Ann. Nat. Hist. xm. 306.

Literary Gazette, Dec. 9.

do.

Tulk & Henfrey’s Manual.Lit. Gazette, Jan. 6, 1844.

578 APPENDIX.

Date. Subject.

1844. Father Matthew’s Journey to China, and Howhe nearly Broke the Pledge there, a Song,

Article on Brown’s Chemical Notions,

Lecture on the Bearing of Marine Researches

on Geology,

Reviews of

—

Philip’s Life of Smith,

American Geol. Transactions,

Richardson’s Geology

Garner’s Staffordshire,

Ansted’s Geology

Paper on British Fossil Ophiuridae,

Abstract of Papers read before the British As-

sociation, York,

Review of “ Vestiges of Creation,”

Review of Mantell’s “ Medals of Creation,” ...

Lines (Parody on Kuhla Khan) on Hungerford

Bridge, : 1

On the Morphology of the Reproductive Sys-

tem of the Sertularian Zoophyte,

On some Additions to the British Fauna,

On the Medusa Proboscidalis,

Report on the Tertiary Fossils of Malta and

Gozo,

1845. On some Cretaceous Fossils from New Jersey,

Report on Fossils from Southern India (read

January 31, 1844,

Report on the Lower Greensand Fossils in the

possession of the Geological Society,

Account of Two Fossil Species of Creseis (read

March 1844)

On the Fossils of the Fresh-water Tertiary For-

mation of the Gulf of Smyrna (read April

17, 1844)

Report on the Fossils from Santa Fe de Bogota

(read May 1, 1844),

Valentine by a Palaeontologist,

On some remarkable Analogies between the

Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms (Lecture

at Royal Institution),

Catalogue of the Lower Greensand Fossils in

the possession of the Geological Society.

On a New Species of Cardium from the Green-

sand of Devonshire,

On the Section between Black Gang Chine and

Atherfield Point (in conjunction with Capt.

Ibbetson),

On some Echinodermata from the Miocene

Strata of North America,...

Lit. Gazette, Jan. 27.

do. do.

Jameson’s Jour, xxxvi. 318.

Athenaeum.

do.

do.

do.

do.

Proc. Geol. Soc. xv.

Athenaeum.

Lancet.

do.

Punch.

Ann. Nat. Hist. xiv. 385.

do. do. 410.

Proc. Lin. Soc. Nov. 1844.

Proc. Geol. Soc. iv.

Quart. Jour. Geol. Society,

i. 61.

Do., i. 79.

Do., i. 78.

Do. i., 145.

Do., i. 162.

Do., x. 174.

Literary Gazette, Feb. 18.

do. Feb. 14.


i. 237, 345.

Do., i. 408.

Do., i. 190.

Do., i. 425.


Bate. Subject.

1845. On the Distribution of Endemic Plants,

Notice of Additions to the Marine Fauna of

Britain,

On the Fresh-water Fossils of Cos,

On Preserving Medusae,

Notice of Strzelecki’s New South Wales

Reminiscences of Xanthus,

Brancliiostoma,

Insects, Geographical Distribution of,

Ichthyology, recent Additions to (and other

articles),

1846. Review of Murchison’s Russia,

Report of Potato Commission (a squib in verse,

On the Geology of Lycia (in conjunction with

Lieutenant Spratt, R.N.)

List of Pleistocene Fossils from the Isle of

Man,

Review of Murchison’s Russia,

The Poet’s Corner,

On the Connexion between the Existing Fauna

and Flora of the British Isles, and the Geo-

logical Changes which have affected their

Area,

On the Pulmograde Medusae of the British

Seas.

Notices of Natural History Observations bear-

ing upon Geology,

Note on Sections of Isle of Wight,

Travels in Lycia (in conjunction with Lieut.

Spratt), two vols.

Monograph on the Cretaceous Fossils of South-

ern India,

On Palaeozoic and Secondary Fossil Molluscs

of South America.

On some Fossils from Samos and Euboea (read

18th November),

1847. New and Rare British Animals,

Notice of Munby’s Flora of Algiers,

On Orbitolites Mantelli (in Lyell’s paper),

Lecture on the Natural History Features of the

North Atlantic (Royal Institution).

On the Families of British Lamellibranchiate

Mollusca.

On Dredging Researches in progress,

The Fate of the Dodo,

Sixteen political leading articles at election

time,

Leader on Irish Fisheries,


do.

do.

do.

Athenaeum.

Literary Gazette, Nov. 8.

Penny Cyclopaedia, Supp.

do. do.

do. do.

Athenaeum.

Bentley’s Miscellany.


n. 8.

Do., 346.

Literary Gazette, Feb. 7.

do. do.

Mem. Geol. Sur. i. 336.

Ann. Nat. Hist. xvm. 284;



do. do.

Van Voorst.

Trans. Geol. Soc. 2d Series,

VII.

App. to Darwin’s Geology

of South America.

Jour. Geol. Soc. hi. 73.

Ann. Nat. Hist. xix. 96,

390.

Do., p. 398.


iv. 11.

Athenaeum and Literary

Gazette, May 22.

Brit. Ass. Rep. 1847, Sect.

i. 75.

Do., 77.

Literary Gazette, July 3.

In various papers.

Morning Herald.

580 APPENDIX.

Bate. Subject.

1847. List of Shells in the Temple of Serapis (an

Appendix to Mr. Babbage’s paper).

1848. History of British Mollusca (with Mr. Hanley,

began in January),

Palmontological Map of the British Isles, with

a Summary of British Paleontology and

Geology.

On some New Fossil Shells from Barbadoes, ..

Lecture on the Question whether Generic Cen-

tres Exist (Royal Institution),

Note on the Flora of the Isle of Man,

Notice of Discoveries femong the British Cys-

tidee,

On some Marine Animals from the British

Channel,

Monograph of the Naked-Eyed Medusae,

Notice ofsome Peloria Varieties of Viola Canina

(read before Linnaean Society, 6th June).

Monograph of the British Fossil Asteriadse, ...

Monograph of the Silurian Cystideae of Britain,

Memorandum respecting some Fossiliferous Lo-

calities alluded to in Mr. Ramsay’s and Mr.

Aveline’s Paper.

1849. Lecture on the Question, Whether New Species

have come into Existence since the Creation

of Man (Royal Institution).

Note on a Letter from Mr. Macandrew about

the Mollusca of Vigo Bay.

British Organic Remains, Decade 1 ;and paper

on Ampyx, in Decade 2.

On the Varieties of the Wild Carrot,

On a Monstrosity of a Vinca,

On the Reproduction of Beroe Cucumis,

On the British Patellacem,

Song of the Beroe,

British Mollusca, vol. ii. (with Mr. Hanley), ...

1850. Note on Fossiliferous Deposits in the Middle

Island of New Zealand.

Lecture on the Distribution of Fresh water

Animals and Plants.

On the Succession of Organic Remains in the

Dorsetshire Purbecks,

On the Distribution of European Echini,

Note of Discoveries in Hebrides,

British Organic Remains, Decade 3, Echino-

derms.

Lecture at the Opening of the Medical Lec-

tures at King’s College, London, Oct. 1.


hi. 216 .

Van Voorst.

Keith Johnston’s Physical

Atlas.


2d Series, i. 3 17

Literary Gazette, Mar. 4.

In Cumming’s “ Isle of

Man.”

Brit. Ass. Rep. for 1848.

do. do.

1 vol. 4to (Ray Society)


2d Series, nr. 352.

Mem. Geol. Sur. n. Part 2,

do. do.


iv. 297.

Athenaeum & Lit. Gazette,

March 2.

Ann. Nat. Hist., 2d Series,

in. 507.

Memoirs of the Geological

Survey.


do. do.

do. do.

do. do.

Lit. Gazette, Oct. 6.

Van Voorst.


vi. 343.

Abstracts in Athenaeum

and Lit. Gazette.


do. do.

Jameson’s Jour. October.

Memoirs of the Geological

Survey.

Daily News and Medical

Journal.


Date. Subject.

1850. Description of Fossil Echinidse from Portugal

(a Note to Mr. Sharpe’s Paper, read 21st

November 1849).

On Cardiaster,

On the Species of Mollusca collected during the

Surveying Voyages of the “Herald” and“ Pandora.”

1851. Article on Sedgwick’s Discourse on the Studies

Quart. .Tour. Geol. Society,

vi. 195.

Ann. Nat. Hist. 2d Series,

vi. 442.

Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850, pp.

53, 270.

of the University of Cambridge, Lit. Gazette, January 4.

•tide on Bon Gaultier, do. do.

Do. Cheever’s Whaling, do. January 11.

Do. Physical Geography, do. January 18.

Do. Hutton’s Chronology of Creation, ... do. February 15.

Do. De la Beche’s Geological Observer, do. April 5.

Do. Lyell (and on his Speech), do. April 12.

Do. Lady M. S. Wortley’s Travels, do. May 17.

Do. California, by Kelly, do. May 24.

Do. A Trip to Mexico, do. March 8.

Do. Miss Martineau, do. July 12.

Do. Albert Smith’s Constantinople do.

Lecture on Recent Researches into the Natural

History of the British Seas.

Proc. Royal. Inst.;Ann.

and Mag. Nat. Hist. 2d

Series, vh. 232.

On the Discovery by Dr. Overweg of Devonian

Rocks in North Africa,

On the Echinodermata of the Crag,

On a New Species of Maclurea,

On some Indications of the Molluscous Fauna

of the Azores and St. Helena,

On a New Testacean discovered during the

Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake,

On the Estuary Beds and the Oxford Clay at

Loch Staffin.

On the Vegetable Remains from Ardtun Head(Note to the Duke of Argyle’s Paper),

Essay on the Vegetable Works contributed to

the Great Exhibition,

Notes on various Vegetable and Animal Pro-

ducts in the Great Exhibition.

. Ass. Rep. for 1851,

do. do.

do. do.

do. do.

do. do.


vii. 104.

Do, 103.

Art Journal.

Hunt’s Guide;

Illustrated

Catalogue of Great Ex-

hibition.

Song on Negative Facts, a New Ballad on the

State of Geological Science,

Reports of the Proceedings of the Natural His-

tory and Geological Sections of the British

Association at Ipswich,

British Mollusca, vol. iii. (with Mr. Hanley.)

On Australian Mollusca, ,

Article on Reveries of a Bachelor

Lit. Gazette, July 12.

do. July 12, 19.

Van Voorst.

Voyage of the “ Rattle-

snake,” vol. II.

Lit. Gazette, June 7.

582 APPENDIX.

Date. Subject.

1851. Article on Christmas’s Mediterranean,

Do. Neale’s Travels in Syria,

Do. Hitchcock’s Religion of Geology, ...

Lecture on Natural History applied to Geology

and the Arts.

On a Species of ZEquorea inhabiting the British

Seas.

Letter on our National Museums,

1852. On Hard Woods used for Ornament (four arti-

cles),

Article on Lyell’s Elements, new edition,

Do. Squier’s Nicaragua,

Reply to Professor Sedgwick,

Article on Mundy’s Australia,

Note on Eocene Echinodermata (Lyell’s Paper

on Belgian Tertiary Formations).

Note on Marine Zones,

The Masque of Fraternity (a Poem),

Shell-fish, their Ways and Works,

On the Supposed Analogy between the Life of

an Individual and the Duration of Species.

On the Extinct Land Shells of St. Helena, ...

On Arctic Echinoderms,

Monograph of British Tertiary Echinoderms,

Notices of English Scientific Works

Lecture on Australian Rocks, addressed to Emi-

grants.

The Future of Geology,

Article on Thompson’s Thibet, etc.,

On the Fossils of the Yellow Sandstone of the

South of Ireland,

On a Species of Sepiola new to Britain,

On a New Map of the Geological Distribution

of Marine Life, and on the Homoiozoic

Belts,

Plants and Botanists,

British Mollusca, vol. iv.,

1853. Notice of Yon Buch,

Lecture on some New Points in British Geo-

rgy-

On the Fluvio-Marine Tertiaries of the Isle of

Wight.

Review of Gray’s edition of Leach’s Mollusca,

Geology, Popular and Artistic,

Lecture on the Educational Uses of Museums(October 1 ).

Lit. Gazette, August 2.

do. Sept. 6.

do.

Records of the School of

Mines, vol. i. Part 1

.


2d Series, xiv. 294.

Lit. Gazette, Dec. 20.

Art Journal.

Lit. Gazette, Jan. 24.

do. Feb. 7 & 14.

do. Mar. 20, Ap. 24.

do. May 22.


vm.do. do.

Weekly News.

Westminst. Review, Jan.

Lecture at Royal Institu-

tion;Ann. & Mag. Nat.

Hist., 2d Series, x. 59.


vm. 197.

Append. to Dr. Sutherland’s

Arctic Voyage.

Palmontographical Society,

vol. for 1852.

Westminster Review.

Lectures on Gold, pub-

lished by Bogue.

Westminster Review, July.

Lit. Gazette, August 21.


do. do.

do. do.

Westminster Review, Oct.

Van Voorst.

Lit. Gazette, March 12.

Brit. Inst. Rep. for 1853,

Part. hi. 316.


ix. 259.

Lit. Gazette, April 9.

Dublin Univ. Mag., Sept.

Records of the School of

Mines.


Pate. Subject.

1853. On the Geology of Lebanon,

The Professorship of Chinese,

1854. Review of Hooker’s Himalaya,

Do. Smyth’s Mediterranean,

Do. Martin’s Correggio,

Do. Murchison’s Siluria,

Note on Spadix Purpurea,

On the Manifestation of Polarity in the Dis-

tribution of Organized Beings in Time

(April 28).

Note on an Indication of Depth of Primeval

Seas afforded by the Remains of Colour in

Fossil Testacea,

Map of Homoiozoic Belts, etc.,

Presidential Address at the Geological Society,

Part of the Natural History Guide-Book for

the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.

Inaugural Address to the Natural History Edinburgh Monthly Jour.

Class at Edinburgh. of Science.

Notice of Balfour’s Botany do. do.

Do. Professor Jameson, Do., and Literary Gazette,

April 29, 1854.

On Foliation of Metamorphic Rocks in Scot-

land, Brit. Ass. Rep. for 1854.

On some Points connected with the Natural

History of the Azores, do. do.

Article on Murchison’s Siluria, Quarterly Review, Oct.

1855. Introductory Lecture to Natural History Class Edin. New Phil. Journal,

at Edinburgh, Session 1854-55. January 1855.

1858. On the Fluvio-Marine Tertiary Strata of the Memoirs of the Geological

Isle of Wight (completed by Mr. Austen, Survey.

Professor Ramsay, and Mr. Bristow).

1859- Natural Llistory of the European Seas (con-

tinued and completed by Mr. Austen), One vol. 12mo, Van Voorst.

Appendix to Risk Allah Ef-

fendi’s work on Syria.

Literary Gazette, Dec. 31.

Lit. Gaz. Feb. 25, Mar. 4.

do. March 18.

do. June 3.

do. June 24.


2d Series, xm. 31.

Royal Inst. Rep. Part iv.

428.

Proc. Royal Soc. Mar. 23.

Johnston’s Physical Atlas,

April.

Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. x.

INDEX.

Aberdeen, Chair of Natural History

at, 272.

iEgean Sea, visit to, 269, 274,

Agassiz, Professor, 263, 264.

Aitken, Mr., letter to, 237.

Algiers, visit to, 230.

Alison, Professor, 173, 185.

Amorgo, visit to, 287.

Anatomy Bill, introduction of, 95.

Arendal, visit to, 207.

Argyle, Duke of, 526.

Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh, Forbes’s geo-

logical theory of, 553.

Ashworth, Miss, 440,

Asia Minor, visit to, 297.

Association, British, 225, 239, 245, 262,

308, 349, 369, 388, 399, 420, 442,

455, 475, 488, 499, 563.

Athenaeum Club, Forbes elected a mem-ber of, 384.

Atlantic, lecture on the North, 417.

Attwood, Mrs. Melville, 350, 354.

Notes of Forbes’s early days, 55.

Auvergne, visit to, 521.

Aveline, Mr. Talbot, 401.

Bachelorhood, Forbes’s opinion of,

438.

Balfour, Professor, 106, 345, 567, 568,

569.

Ball, Mr. Robert, 261.

Bathymetrical classification of the Ma-rine Fauna, 255, 299.

“Beacon,” the, 186, 275.

Belfast, 261, 499.

Belgium, visits to, 238, 498.Bell, Sir Charles, 177.

Bennett, Professor, 121, 175, 180, 567,569.

Bentley, Professor, 532.

Beranger, Forbes’s admiration of, 243.Bergen, 209.

Berbe Cucumis, paper on, 456.Birmingham, 245, 453.Birth of son, 480.

daughter, 499.

Blackie, Professor, 272, 290.

Blackwood’s Magazine, 193.

Blytt, M., of Christiania, 209.

Board of Trade, transfer of Survey andSchool of Mines to, 517.

Bondhuus, glacier of, 211.

Botany, Chair of, at King’s College,

London, 306, 323.“ Bridgewater-writing,” Forbes’s opi-

nion of, 547.

Bristow, Mr., 453, 483, 501.

Britain, Fauna and Flora of, 394, 396,538.

British geology, on some new points in,

516.

Brotherhood of Friends of Truth, 194,

340, 380, 387.

Brown, Dr. Samuel, 266, 340, 361.Burke and Hare, atrocities of, 92.

Cairi, visit to, 290.

Cambridge, visits to, 355, 388.Campbell, Principal, Aberdeen, 146,

203.—— Letter to, 216.Candia, 275.

Camiola, visit to, 238.Centres of distribution, generic, 431,

451.

Specific, 168.Cerigotto, visit to, 293.Chartist meetings of 1848, 432.Christiania, visit to, 214.Christison, Professor, 125.Clyde, Firth of, 245.Copenhagen, visit to, 216.Cork, visit to, 350.Costume, Norwegian, 208.Craig’s Court Museum, 377, 383, 394,

432.’

Crystal Palace, dinner at, 531.Cupar-Fife, lectures at, 254.

Daniell, Rev. Mr., 302, 306.Day, Professor, 337.Dean Cemetery, 567, 572.

586 INDEX.

De la Beche, Sir Henry, 359, 375, 390,401,411,499,502.

Dicynodon, properly cleaned and dress-ed, 335.

Distribution of terrestrial Pulmoniferain Europe, 239.

Dodo, Song of the, 420.Dorsetshire, visits to, 434, 453, 519.Douglas, Isle of Man, 35.Drawing, Forbes’s skill in, 212, 559.Dredging Committee, institution of, 246.

Song, 247.

Drew, Dr., of Southampton, letter to,

511.

Dublin visit, 429, 446.

Dumfriesshire, excursions in, 562, 565.

Edinburgh, advantages of, for field ob-servation, 162.

Forbes’s visits to, 87, 327, 382.Student life in, 87, 136.

Lectures at, 240, 265, 263.

Philosophical Association, lectures

at, 240-

Academic Annual, 255.

College Museum, 109, 556.College of Surgeons of, 137.

Extra-academical School of, 137.

Medical School of, 90, 136.

Philosophical Journal, 109, 566,568.

Physical Society, 141.

School of Natural History, 554.

Student clubs, 188.

Town-Council, 232, 533, 570.

Chair of Natural History, 307,

357, 393, 404, 409, 410, 444, 448,

450, 469, 487, 522, 525, 528, 532,

558, 566, 570._

Meeting of British Association at,

475.

Forbes’s return to, 552.

Introductory Lecture at, 161, 552.

European seas, .Natural History of the,

479.

Exhibition of 1851, 485.

Faraday, Professor, 361.

Fellowes, Sir Charles, 302.

Fever, attack of, in the iEgean Sea,

308.

Recurrences of, 336, 354.

Field excursions at London, 345, 495.

at Edinburgh, 560, 561, 562.

Fleetwood, Mr., notes of Forbes, 60.

Fleming, Dr., 272, 357, 526.

Folgefond, the, 211.

Forbes, Mr. David, 39, 352.

Edward. See Table of Contents.

Mr. (his father), letters to, 176,

178, 226, 231, 240, 253, 309.

Forbes, Mrs., 444, 446, 450, 452, 454456, 464, 467, 489, 504, 509, 510,’

519, 522, 530, 555, 562, 564, 567,569, 570, 571, 572.Professor J. I)., 118.

Forth, Firth of, 161.Fossil Marine Animals, Natural History

and Geographical Distribution of,

383.

France, Tours in, 219, 228, 521, 531.Fresh-water Animals and Plants, Dis-

tribution of, 473.Fullerian Professorship, 366.

Garvin, Mr., 57.

his notes of Forbes, 59, 72.Geology, light thrown on by submarine

researches, 362.Geological Society, 296, 324, 334, 397,

533.

Curatorship of, 324, 329.Forbes elected a Fellow of, 379.Forbes proposed as President of,

507._

Anniversary dinner of, 515.Geological Survey, 359, 376.

Anniversary dinner of, 411.Nomadic life of, 469.Reports of, 395, 396, 430, 432.placed under Board of Trade, 517.

Germany, visit to, 219.Gibbs, Mr. Richard, 401, 502.Godwin-Austen, Mr., 452, 571.Goodsir, Professor, 143, 144, 175, 272,

311, 328, 355, 381, 476, 569, 570,571.

Government grant, 365, 403.Graham, Professor, 103.

Graves, Captain, 269, 275, 328, 347,362, 406.

Letter to, 410.

Guernsey, visit to, 245.

Hampshire, 434.

Hanley, Mr., 420, 431.

Hastings, Marchioness of, 422, 423,434.

Have new Species appeared since Man’sCreation ? A lecture, 450.

Hebrides, visits to, 204, 225, 390, 476.

Helvetic Society, 223.

Histology, study of, introduced by Dr.Bennett, 121.

Hitchcock, Religion of Geology, 492.

Honeymoon Cottage, 444.

Hope, Professor, 98, 181.

Horner, Mr. Leonard, letters to, 525,

528.

Howard, Rev. Mr., his account of

Forbes, 50.

Huxley, Professor, 532.

INDEX. 587

Hyndman, Mr., 261 •

Hythe, visit to, 530, 531.

Jameson, Professor, 108, 408, 522, 525.

Death of, 532.

Forbes’s eulogium of, 553.

Jardin des Plantes, visit to, 220.

Jermyn Street Museum, 431, 447, 452,

466, 469, 477, 485.

Iguanodon, dinner in belly of, 531.

Illness, 308, 336, 354, 392, 469, 562,

567.

Inchkeith, excursion to, 561;

Johnston, A. Keith, Physical Atlas,

427, 482.

Ipswich, visit to, 481.

Ireland, visits to, 261, 349, 390, 412,

429, 446, 477, 489, 499, 530.

Irish Sea, 218.

Jukes, Mr., 401, 428, 445, 457, 490,

499, 530, 564.

Letters to, 458, 502, 531, 565.

Knox, Dr., 139, 173.

King’s College, London, Chair of Botanyat, 306, 323, 448, 475, 532.

Lectures at, 343, 417, 422, 435,

499.

Lbanberis, 446.

Llangollen, 444.

Lament for the Sea Kings, 19.

Laughton, Mr. Jas. Brotherstone, 190.

Lectures on Natural History, Forbes’s

opinion regarding, 511.

Lecture, Forbes’s first, 240.

Lectures, 240, 253, 254, 256,265, 266,

268, 343, 362, 383, 394, 395, 417,

418, 431, 450, 473, 479, 483, 516,

517, 532, 553.

Letters to

—

• Mr. Aitken, 237.

Principal Campbell, 216.

Dr. Drew, 511.

Mr. Forbes (his father), 176, 178,

226, 231, 240, 253, 309.

Sir R. Murchison, 515, 524, 561.Dr. Percy, 179, 186, 238, 277,

384, 455.

Mr. Patterson, 255, 261, 295, 414,480.

Mr. Ramsay, 396, 417, 423, 428,

448, 454, 457, 463, 464, 466, 478,

488, 492, 503, 508, 524, 554.. Mr. Reeks, 502, 507.

Mr. Thompson, 244, 261, 264,

268, 294, 330, 331, 338, 348, 356,

360, 371, 385, 391, 393, 394, 406,

409, 442, 443, 456, 473, 481, 499,491.

Mr. Yan Voorst, 250.Dr. G. Wilson, 339, 352, 413.

Lillehammer, visit to, 213.

Linnsean Society, 343.

Liston, Professor, 134.

Liverpool, 369, 563.

Lectures at, 256.

Loch Lomond, excursion to, 562.

London, first visit to, 71.

Residence in, 76.

Becomes Professor of Botany in,

328.

Forbes leaves, for Edinburgh, 534.

Institution, 395.

Lumsden, Dr., 229.

Lycia, 298, 299, 304.

“Travels in,” 303, 394, 486.

Lyell, Sir Charles, 429, 483, 524, 532.

Lyme, 417.

Lymnea, Notice of experiments on, 64,

160.

Macandrew, Mr., 368, 389, 397, 442,

476.

Macaskill, Mr. Donald, 190.

Macgillivray, Mr., 273.

Maori, Gulf of, 298.“ Maga, University,” 175,181, 190,236.

Malacologia Monensis, 167, 237.

Malta, 274.

Man, Appearance of, 451.

Man, Isle of, 1-36, 166, 203, 218, 232,

239, 260, 271, 406, 431, 449, 489,

527.

Marine life, Map of the Distribution of,

482.

Fauna, Bathymetrical Classifica-

tion of, 255, 299.

Marlborough House, 527.

Marriage, Forbes’s, 443.

Materia Medica, 126.

Medical School, Edinburgh, 136.

Mediterranean, 230.

Medusae, Monograph of naked-eyed,430.

Mines, School of, 447, 486, 492, 507,

515, 522, 533.

Lectures at, 494, 497, 517, 531.placed under Board of Trade, 517.

Minorca, visit to, 230.“ Mollusca, History of British,” 420,

422, 457, 479, 490, 497, 508, 515.Monro, Dr., 185.

Mother, death of, 177.

Murchison, Sir Roderick, 399, 403, 475,534.

Letters to, 515, 524, 561.Review of his Siluria, 565.

Museum, Educational uses of a, 511,522.at Craig’s Court, 377, 383.at Edinburgh, 110, 556.at Jermyn Street, 431, 447, 452,466, 469, 477, 485.

588 INDEX.

Naes, visit to, 208 .

Nature, Forbes’s early devotion to, 43.liis views of, 546.

Natural History of the British Seas,Recent Researches into, 483.Forbes’s opinion regarding Lec-

tures on, 511.

Navarino, Bay of, 274.Naxia, 280, 294.

Newcastle, visit to, 239.North, Christopher, 193.Norway, Voyage to, 203.

Norwegian Costume, 208.

0. E. M., 242.“ Oineromaths,” Order of, 194, 198.Old Red Sandstone, Fossils of, 490.Organized Beings, Geological and Geo-

graphical Distribution of, 395.• Geographical Distribution of, 479.

Manifestation of Polarity in the

distribution of, 532, 543.Orkneys, 205, 245.

Oxford, 420.

Palalontographical Society, Forma-tion of, 412.

Palaeontology, Forbes’s connexion with,

550.

Palaeontologist to Geological Survey,Forbes appointed, 378.

Palaeontological Map of British Islands,

427, 431.

Paris, visit to, 219.

Student life in, 226.

Paros, 275.

Patterson, Mr., 261.

Letters to, 255, 261, 295, 414,

480.

Peel, Sir Robert, 365, 403.

Percy, Dr., letters to, 179, 186, 238,

277, 384, 455.

Playfair, Dr. Lyon, 527.

Poetry and Natural History, connexion

of, 414.

Polarity, Manifestation of, in the distri-

bution of Organized Beings in time,

532, 543.

Psycho-Zoology, 318.

Pulmoniferous Mollusca, Report on

British, 244.

on the distribution of, in Europe,

239.

Purbeck Strata, Geology of, 460-469.

“ Rambi.es of a Naturalist,” 270, 336,

357.

Ramsay, Professor, 263, 359, 424, 426,

429, 483.

Letters to, 396, 417, 423, 428, 448,

454, 457, 463, 464, 466, 478, 488,492, 503, 508, 524, 554.

Rathke, Pi'of'essor, 214.Red Lions, 247, 248, 263, 379, 388,

389, 420, 421, 443, 456, 475, 489,499, 556, 565.

Red Sea, 308, 311.Reeks, Mr., letters to, 502, 507.Reid, Dr. D. B., 101.Religion of Geology, Hitchcock’s, 492.Reptiles, Poisonous, absence of from

Ireland and the Isle of Man, 169.Researches, Retrospective view of For-

bes’s, 312, 536.Rhodes, 302.Robertson, Mr. Patrick, Counsel for the

Edinburgh Students in the year1838, 236.

“Royal Hammerers,” 412, 498.Royal Institution, 362, 383, 384, 394,

417, 418, 431, 450, 473, 479, 483,576, 532.

Society, Forbes elected a Fellowof, 378.

St. Andrews, visit to, 241 .

Lecture at, 253.

Proposed Professorship of NaturalHistory at, 252, 265.

Santorin, 289-

Sass, Mr., Forbes becomes a studentunder, 71.

Saxony, King of, 365.Sedgwick, Professor, 563.Sertularian Zoophyte, Morphology of the

Reproductive System of the, 370.Shetlands, visit to, 244, 389.Smith, Mr., of Jordanhill, 245.Smyrna, Gulf of, 311.

Smyth, Professor W., 140, note.

Snow-ball riots in Edinburgh, 232.“Snow-drop, The University,” 237.Southampton, 399.

Special Constable, Forbes sworn in as,

433.

Specific centres of distribution of plants

and animals, 168.

Spratt, Lieutenant, 280, 302, 362, 406.

Staffordshire Coal-field, 428.

“Star Fishes, History of British,” 250,

253, 256, 258, 273, 326.

Stavenger, 210.

Stethoscope, 132.

Stewart, Mr. Charles Erskine, 190.

Stowell, Miss, her account of Forbes,

48.

Student life in Edinburgh, 87, 136.

in Paris, 226.

Styria, visit to, 238.

Surgeons, Edinburgh College of, 137.

Swanage, 434, 478.

INDEX. 589

Swansea, 442.

Switzerland, visit to, 220, 222.

Syme, Professor, 134.

Syra, 375-

Thesis, Forbes’s Inaugural, 178.

Thompson, Mr., 261, 280, 274.

Letters to, 2 34, 2 6 1 , 2 64, 268, 294,

330, 331, 338, 348, 356, 360, 371,

385, 391, 393, 394, 406, 409, 442,

443, 456, 473, 481, 489, 491.

Turner’s, Professor, Lectures, 173.

Universty Club, 255.

“Maga,” 175, 181, 190,236.“Snow-drop,” 237.

Vacation Rambles, 203.

Van Voorst, Mr., 250, 462.

Verses, List of, 62.

Amatory, 436.

A Night Scene, 257.

Verses, Dredging Song, 247.

Lament for the Sea Kings, 19.

O.E. M., 242.

Song of Dodo, 421.

The Anatomy Bill, 95.

The Vision of “Going lip,” 182.

Valentine, 387.“Vestiges of the Natural History of

Creation,” 383.

Vienna, visit to, 238.

Wales, 218, 368, 401, 424, 444.

Wernerian Society, 239, 244.Wight, Isle of, 362, 483, 502, 520, 530.

Geology of, 505, 509.AVilson, Dr. George, 381.

Letters to, 339, 352, 413.

Xanthian Marbles, 302, 408.

Zoo-Geology, 320, 537.

ERRATUM.P. 313, 1. 25, for in organic, read inorganic.

EDINBURGH ;

PRINTER TO THE QUEEN,

T. CONSTABLE,

AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.

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